Consolidated Nuclear Security in 2017 took a paycheck’s worth of wages from thousands of employees at Department of Energy’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, three employees alleged in a federal lawsuit.
The short, estimated to be at least $10 million across the affected group, happened after the Bechtel National-led site management contractor shifted to a biweekly pay schedule in 2015 from a monthly pay schedule, according to the lawsuit filed in April with the U.S. District Court for Eastern Tennessee. The first two-week pay period of that year was supposed to start in late December 2014, but the company actually started it in early January, the plaintiffs said.
The employees seek class-action status for the suit, which they want to cover all salaried exempt Y-12 workers. They say Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) committed breach of contract, fraud, and civil theft, among other things. They seek the return of the allegedly withheld wages, court costs, and “any such other and further relief, at law or equity, which may be appropriate,” according to the complaint.
In an answer to the plaintiffs’ complaint filed on May 14, CNS denied the key claim in the lawsuit: that it essentially took one paycheck from all salaried exempt Y-12 employees in 2017, thereby depriving them of almost 4% of their pay for that year. The company said it ultimately paid what it owed its employees.
“CNS paid all employees within the time limits permitted by Tennessee law for all weeks that the employees performed work,” the company stated in its response. “CNS denies it misled any employee regarding any wage payment.”
Salaried exempt employees typically include those who are paid at an annual rather than an hourly rate, and who are paid their full wages each pay period regardless of how many hours they actually worked in that period. Such employees also cannot earn overtime pay.
A CNS spokesperson declined to comment on the case this week, citing company policy against discussing ongoing litigation. In its May filing, the company also raised jurisdictional issues with the case, including that none of CNS’ parent companies are citizens of Tennessee.
Consolidated Nuclear Security’s contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration began in 2014 and covers management of both Y-12 and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. The company is now working under the first of the contract’s three options, which runs through Sept. 30, 2021. The agency planned to announce by the end of June whether it would pick up another two-year option to keep the company on through Sept. 30, 2023. The deal is worth about $2 billion annually. The contract’s five-year base was worth more than $7.8 billion.
