The Department of Energy is scheduled on Sept. 30 to end an emergency program to reimburse contractors for paid leave provided certain employees who cannot work on-site during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A provision included in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act signed into law in March provided for reimbursement to key government contractors, such as those at DOE and Department of Defense facilities, with employees not yet allowed to report to their job sites during the pandemic, yet who are unable to work remotely.
Personnel such as mechanics or white-collar employees who work in classified areas of DOE facilities are often cited as examples of individuals who cannot typically telecommute.
In March, the Energy Department dramatically scaled back staffing at cleanup sites to bare bones levels in an effort to slow spread of the virus. Since May, however, both the DOE Office of Environmental Management and the department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have launched a remobilization program to gradually start recalling more workers back inside the fence.
The impact of the expiration is likely to be “pretty muted” at this stage, an industry executive with an Energy Department contractor said by telephone last week. The numbers of people who remain unable to work on-site or remotely these days is relatively small. But it is tough “if you are the person who runs out of leave,” he added.
Figures released Friday by DOE show that 50% of the 11,000-person federal-and-contractor workforce at the Hanford Site in Washington state is currently on-site. Another 45% are teleworking and only 5% are collecting paid leave. Hanford this week entering Phase 2 of the DOE restart program, which involves recalling larger numbers of people on-site, including those work require more personal protective equipment than those brought back in Phase 1.
During a Thursday roundtable discussion sponsored by the Energy Communities Alliance, Jacobs Vice President and Deputy General Manager for North American Nuclear Colin Jones predicted most people at Environmental Management sites will be back to work “by the end of the financial year” on Sept. 30.
This will ease the impact of the CARES Act expiration, Jones added.
