Now this story pisses me off. This company was tasked with protecting these federal facilities, had a default on contract, and for whatever reason has decided to stop payments to employees. Pfffft. Hopefully Rep. Hastings will be able to get to the bottom of what is going on with this disaster. –Matt
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Hastings probes plight of HWA security guards
September 26th, 2009
Approximately 200 private security guards throughout the Northwest from Portland to Boise who were abandoned in August by their employer — HWA security in Seattle — may end up going two months or more before federal officials can make up their missing wages.
Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., is aware of the hardship caused for HWA’s employees and has been working for a couple of weeks to help them recover their money, said Charlie Keller, the congressman’s spokesman.
Keller said Hastings has contacted the U.S. Department of Labor on behalf of the HWA employees.
“We want to hear from anyone who has this problem. (Everyone) will be paid for all their back pay. How long it will take I can’t say. People should call our Pasco office,” Keller said. The phone for that office is 509-543-9396.
Most HWA guards have continued to staff their posts since federal agencies hired other security companies to take over HWA’s defaulted contracts.
But checks from the new employers won’t be coming for a week or more, said two security guards whose families are surviving on savings or loans from family members.
“We’ve been told the federal government will reimburse pay if the contractor defaults,” said Mike Joos, a Richland resident who worked for HWA providing security at the federal building in Richland.
He is one of approximately 190 HWA employees who was assigned to do security at federal facilities in the Tri-Cities, Walla Walla, Yakima, Spokane and Wenatchee. HWA was hired under contract six months ago to provide guards for buildings used by the Veterans Administration, Social Security, Immigration and courts.
HWA also provided security for nine dams on the Columbia River system from Idaho to Portland under contracts with the Army Corps of Engineers. Those HWA employees also have found themselves working without pay or simply told by the federal agencies to not come to work.
Bill Flynn, who has been shop steward at Bonneville Dam for HWA’s guards there, said he knows employees who are owed more than $5,000.
“The company ceased paying its security officers on July 26, and from that date until Sept. 3 the guards worked unpaid. Six weeks without compensation presented a severe hardship for many,” Flynn wrote in an e-mail to the Herald.
Flynn later said HWA’s security officers at Bonneville are owed $60,000.
“My last paycheck was July 27,” Joos said. While that paycheck was good, another check issued by HWA on his behalf to cover a monthly legal debt bounced.
“That was the first we knew that HWA was in financial trouble,” Joos said.
Two weeks later, HWA federal building employees deposited paychecks they didn’t know were worthless and began paying bills.
“There were checks bouncing all over. One bank threatened to bring fraud charges against one of our employees for so many insufficient funds checks,” Joos said.
Joos said he and his family have managed to get by, but not without seeing his Dodge truck repossessed Monday because he couldn’t make payments.
HWA’s owners, J. Thomas Wood and his wife Barbara, have not responded to calls from the Herald to their office, home and cell phones.
Scott Harger, union representative for the Security Police and Fire Professionals of America that the security guards are members of, said the union has filed grievances against HWA.
“We are trying to ensure these guys get their wages and benefits owed to them by HWA. It’s been devastating for all our members,” Harger said from his Seattle office.
Harger said he cannot understand how HWA got into such trouble. “These companies are reimbursed 100 percent by the federal agencies for wages and benefits of the employees,” he said.
Joos said Federal Protective Services, the agency that approved the contract with HWA for security services at federal facilities, started requiring guards to call in before each shift once it found employees weren’t getting paid. “They thought we were going to quit our posts without notice,” he said.
That practice ended in early September when other security companies were hired on an interim basis to pick up HWA’s employees.
“We were told the U.S. Department of Labor would issue checks (to make good on HWA’s default) by Sept. 8. That came and went. It was all hope and nothing else,” Joos said.
Although Security Consulting Group from Tennessee now is Joos’ employer, his first check will only be for one week’s pay and won’t arrive until the end of this month, he said. By then he’ll have gone two months without income.
Financial hardship also hit the family of 34-year-old former HWA guard Justin Platt of Yakima. Married and with two young children, Platt said he is the sole wage earner for his family and has worked contract security for federal facilities in central Washington for nine years.
“This is the first time there have been any pay problems,” he said.
Platt said his last good HWA paycheck was Aug. 10. The next one two weeks later bounced, as did all the checks he wrote to pay bills.
“I’m looking at bounced check fees, late fees and damage to my credit,” Platt said. Were it not for cash loaned from extended family, Platt said he and his family would be in worse financial shape.
Story here.
HWA company website here.