Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), the management and operating contractor for the Pantex Plant in Texas and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, plans to implement a new “market-driven” compensation system once it receives National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) approval, President and CEO Morgan Smith said Wednesday in a memo to employees.
The intention is to bring exempt and nonexempt employees at Pantex and Y-12 under a single compensation system to “streamline business operations and enable managers that manage personnel at both sites to only work in one system in the future,” Smith said. The two sites currently have separate compensation structures, a carry-over from the time before the two sites were consolidated under a single operations contract, according to CNS spokesman Jason Bohne.
Smith’s letter said the new system does not affect unionized employees at the two CNS sites; for other personnel the system would place each worker in a career level, job family, and job specialty. CNS has roughly 8,000 employees between its two sites – 4,600 of those are non-bargaining employees to whom the redesign will apply, while the other 3,400 are bargaining, or unionized, employees.
Consolidated Nuclear Security had planned to implement the system last month but is still waiting on NNSA authorization, according to the memo. Smith said the agency requested additional data that it is now reviewing prior to issuing a decision. “All of our interactions with NNSA indicate that they have been supportive of the redesign and integration efforts,” Smith wrote.
Asked about the NNSA’s request for additional information, Bohne said “redesigning a compensation system is a large and complex undertaking, and questions involving differing data sorts and the need for additional clarification are typical.”
Employees’ current pay will not be reduced as a result of the new system, the memo said. For those earning less than the salary range minimum designated for their job level, “it is our intent to as quickly as possible raise your pay rate to the minimum of the salary range,” it said. Those earning more than the salary range maximum will not receive additional increases until the new structure changes or the employee receives a promotion into a higher salary range position.
“I want to assure you that our ultimate goal is to provide a market-driven equitable pay approach across the employee base that will enable us to attract, retain, develop, and reward the Pantex and Y-12 workforce,” Smith wrote.
