A dozen current and former fire captains or platoon sergeants at the Hanford site in Washington state are seeking overtime back pay and damages in a federal lawsuit filed against site-wide services contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA).
The plaintiffs say MSA owes them overtime pay, equal to one-and-a-half times their normal hourly wage, for time routinely worked beyond 40 hours in a week. The exact dollar amount the plaintiffs seek is not clear; firefighters said they cannot calculate the amount without MSA pay records.
Plaintiffs say they are entitled to overtime back pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
MSA said in court documents the workers are not eligible for overtime pay and that the plaintiffs’ union previously litigated and lost a similar issue before then National Labor Relations Board. The company also said the plaintiffs were paid in accordance with their union’s collective bargaining agreement.
MSA, owned by Leidos and Centerra Group, is asking the Eastern Washington U.S. District Court to dismiss the case and require plaintiffs to pay its legal costs.
The case is scheduled for a scheduling conference July 17, to be conducted by phone from the U.S. Courthouse in Spokane.
MSA has been on the job at Hanford since 2009 under a contract worth up to $4 billion through 2019, with options. The Department of Energy has already exercised the deal’s final option.
Until 2016, plaintiffs worked shifts alternating 24 hours on and 24 hours off for five days, followed by four shifts off. In 2016 that changed to 48 hours on followed by four days off. Either schedule ended up with firefighters working 48 or 72 hours in a week, the plaintiffs said.
Hanford firefighters are represented by the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 24, which is part of the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council, an umbrella group of Hanford unions.
