NS&D Monitor
5/9/2014
Consolidated Nuclear Security this week revealed its plans for changing the benefits packages at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants and said the changes would help reduce costs and help sustain future operations at the National Nuclear Security Administration facilities. The incoming contractor at Y-12 and Pantex posted the plans on its transition website, with more detailed descriptions yet to come on some components. The benefits announced by CNS are only for the non-bargaining unit employees at the two sites. The union workers are protected by their existing collective bargaining agreements, which were recently extended for another year at both sites and so benefit changes for the rank-and-file won’t be coming anytime soon.
Most of the changes announced this week won’t take place until the beginning of 2015. One exception is that CNS plans to begin shifting more of the cost burden on health-care premiums to salaried workers when the new management contract at the sites takes effect July 1. “To minimize disruption and ensure the continuity of benefits going into the new contract, your current 2014 benefit elections will remain in effect when CNS assumes the contract on July 1. CNS will continue to pay the majority of your health plan premiums (including medical, dental, prescription drugs, and vision), but employee contribution amounts will increase on July 1, 2014,” CNS President Jim Haynes said in the message to employees. “Over the next few years, employee contributions will increase incrementally as we shift to a model where CNS pays 75 percent of the total premiums and you pay 25 percent.” Currently, the salaried workers at Y-12 reportedly pay about 15 percent of the health-care premiums.
Haynes: Package ‘Fair and Compliant’
Employee Benefits Forums are scheduled for Pantex May 14-15 and for Y-12 May 19-20. “The CNS management team and I fully recognize the importance of delivering a benefits plan that helps provide for the needs of you and your loved ones, and that acknowledges the critical work that you do,” Haynes said. “We undertook a very thoughtful, rational, and methodical approach to ensure than the CNS benefits plan was prepared smartly, with fairness and compliance, and with an eye on both short-term and long-term impacts.”
Haynes recently said some changes were being made to help bring Y-12 and Pantex into compliance with DOE Order 350.1 The benefit packages at both sites have reportedly exceeded the standard for several years. The rule is that contractor benefits cannot be greater than 105 percent of the average of companies evaluated for the Department of Energy standard. “Our goal is to get it down to 105 percent so we’re compliant,” Haynes said. To prepare for the changes, Haynes said CNS hired Aon Hewitt to evaluate all the major benefits areas—including health care, disability, personal leave, and employee and employer contributions “to ensure that the CNS benefits package is fair and compliant.” Aon Hewitt looked at 27 comparative organizations, including other DOE contractors, with similar technical capabilities and workforces, he said.
