Voice of the Mid-Columbia | Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Wash. |
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closeFriday, Oct. 30, 2009
Government pays security employees caught in limbo
By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer
Former members of the private security company HWA in Seattle have been reimbursed by the U.S. government for back pay the company owed them.
"We all received our final HWA checks today from the U.S. Department of Treasury," said Bill Flynn, shop steward for security employees at Bonneville Dam.
Flynn said a Department of Labor employee told him most of the money came from cash the government withheld from a final contract installment payment to HWA.
Flynn said the payments arrived Wednesday and cover about six weeks worth of pay left uncovered by HWA late in the summer. The unpaid hours were from late July to the first week in September.
The Herald determined that about 200 HWA employees were trapped in the middle when the security company was terminated for not fulfilling terms of the federal security contracts.
The federal sites included a half-dozen dams on the Columbia River system in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, and federal facilities that included court buildings and the Social Security Administration in Yakima, Spokane and throughout Eastern Washington.
Flynn said he received $2,620 in back pay, which represented 190 hours of work for HWA.
The Herald could not reach a spokesman for the Department of Labor in Seattle for further comment.
HWA's owners also have not responded to repeated requests for comment since the Herald first reported the story Sept. 23.
-- John Trumbo: 582-1529; jtrumbo@tricityherald.com
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