Some workers provided by a sub-contractor to work on the construction of the Westar Energy plant outside Emporia were not pre-approved to work at the site, contractor Black & Veatch said in a 15-point summary release sent to The Gazette late Friday.
Black & Veatch assistant vice president of corporate communications Carl Petz told the Gazette on Saturday that Black & Veatch’s subsidiary, Overland Contracting Inc., is still trying to gather information and documentation from Integrated Service Co., which provided 113 workers to Overland for pipefitting and welding projects. Included in that group were about 100 Filipino nationals.
The foreign workers were ostensibly working on the Emporia Energy Center project using H-2B visas, which allow foreigners to work in the U.S. on jobs for which American worker availability is scarce. A company wishing to use foreign workers with H-2B visas on a Kansas work site must apply with the state department of commerce, which then must confirm that there’s a scarcity of workers available to fill that need. None of the companies involved in the Westar plant project turned in such an application to the department of commerce for the Filipino workers’ positions.
“While those workers who were sent are eligible and in compliance with the department of labor certification process to work in the U.S.,” the Black & Veatch summary said, “they were not pre-approved to work specifically at the Emporia site. ... Upon learning that certain workers provided by InServ were not authorized to be at the site, OCI worked with InServ on a demobilization plan to remove those workers from the site and replace the workers with eligible resources.”
Petz said OCI learned within the past couple of weeks that some of the workers from Integrated Service Co., also known as InServ, weren’t authorized to work there. He said he'd been told that InServ delivered some of the requested paperwork on Friday, and the rest of it was supposed to arrive either Saturday or Monday.
"And at that point, we're going to have all of our folks in legal and HR and construction group pore through that paperwork, to make absolutely certain that the workers that were there were supposed to be there," he said. "And to the extent that they weren't, we're certainly gonna communicate that. Because we want to be open and forthright with this."
He said Black & Veatch expects all of its sub-contractors to follow the law, but said Black & Veatch wasn’t admitting that the workers were on the site illegally.
“What I’d say this is, is this a commitment to verify the facts,” he said. “What we’ve stated here (in the summary) and what I’ve said today is that we can’t answer 100 percent factually, because we don’t have all the detail yet in our hands that we need. We believe that InServ would’ve followed the letter of the law. We believe that there could’ve been mistakes made on their part.
“But until we see that paperwork and until we conduct our own review and audit of that, we can’t say for 100 percent certainty either way.”
The remaining InServ workers on the Emporia Energy site were released on Friday. Petz said InServ workers would not be used for the remainder of the project, but because InServ is no longer needed, not because of the worker controversy — regardless of what the perception may be. He said OCI is confident that it can use more internal workers from other projects, or find more local workers, if it needs to.
“We have 182 people, including 38 local workers, at the site today,” he said. “We had 487 OCI people there at one time.”
For more on this story, see Monday’s Gazette.
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Posted by 486mar (anonymous) on April 14, 2008 at 10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
BLACK & VEATCH / OVERLAND CONTRACTING INC. HAS EMPLOYED ALOT OF PEOPLE THEIR TURN OVER HAS BEEN ENORMOUS. IF WE WAS TO COUNT BY AMERICANS & FOREIGNERS PURSAE. THE FOREIGNERS FAR MORE LED TO WANT TO WORK & HAVE A DEDICATION TO FULLFILL WHAT THIS COMPANY NEEDS ARE. ON THE OTHER HAND MOST AMERICANS & ITS SAD TO SAY JUST WANT A HAND OUT BECAUSE THATS WHAT OUR GOVERMENT HAS SET UP FOR THEM. LIVE (FREE) ON THE TAX PAYERS MONEY. AND IF THESE WORKERS WERE LEGAL TO WORK IN THE UNITED STATES THEN WHY WOULD THEY HAVE TO HAVE A CERTAIN (VISA) TO WORK @ THE WESTAR ENERGY PLANT? I FULLY BELIEVE THAT WE MUST TAKE CARE OF OUR OWN 1ST BUT THE GOVERMENT DONE THIS BY ALLOWING ANY & ALL TO COME INTO THE UNITED STATES. I FIND IT TO BE A MONEY SCAM TOWARDS OCI/BV & SOMETHING FOR THE NEWSPAPER TO WRITE. I ALSO SEE THAT THE EMPORIA GAZETTE DID NOT COME UPON THIS STORY ON THEIR OWN IT WAS BROUGHT TO THEM BY SOMEONE WHO MAY OF BEEN LET GO W/ THIS COMPANY. WHICH I THINK IS WRONG. EXAMPLE BEING? OCI'S SAFETY IS 1ST ON ANY JOB & ALL EMPLOYERS SHOULD HAVE THIS WAY OF THINKING & DOING BUSINESS BUT BACK A BIT AGO THEY CONDUCTED A JOB WIDE DRUG TESTING & THEY MADE THE PAPER FOR THAT. IF I WORKED FOR THIS COMPANY I WOULD COMMEND THEM FOR CAREING ABOUT MY SAFETY TO NOT ALLOW PEOPLE TO MAKE MY WORK ENVIROMENT UNSAFE & ALOT OF PEOPLE JUST LEFT THE JOB BECAUSE KNOWING THEY COULDN'T PASS THE DRUG SCREEN & OTHERS COULDN'T PASS THE ACTUAL TESTING. WHY WOULD THIS BE WRONG TO ENSURE ALL EMPLOYED'S SAFETY. TO GET THIS JOB IT REQUIRES A DRUG SCREEN & IS ZERO TOLERANCE FOR DRUG USE ON OR OFF THE JOB! THIS IS MY EXAMPLE THAT PEOPLE WRITE OR SAY THINGS THAT JUST GET THINGS STIRRED UP FOR OTHERS. IM NOT DOGGING ANYONE BUT GIVE OCI/BV A BREAK THEY ARE TRYING TO DO A JOB, SAFELY & EFFICIENTLY. JUST TO SAY IT MUST BE A GLITCH ON SOMEONE ELSES PART BECAUSE IF YOU KNEW MORE ABOUT THIS COMPANY YOU WOULD KNOW HOW THEY OPERATE FULLY& HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR POLICIES & PROCEDURES!
Posted by 486mar (anonymous) on April 14, 2008 at 10:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
SOUNDS LIKE OCI/BV ARE DOING THEIR PART&THEIR BEST TO GET THE INFORMATION THEY NEED TO CLEAR UP THIS MESS! SOUNDS LIKE ISC SHOULD BE HELD LIABLE FOR (NOT) DOING THEIR PART TO ENSURE THAT THESE PHILLIPINES MET ANY & ALL REQUIREMENTS TO WORK ON THE WESTAR ENERGY JOB SITE. I ALSO THOUGHT THAT I READ THAT IN THE FIRST ARTICLE THAT WESTAR ENERGY DONE THE FINAL LAST APPROVAL ON THIS TYPE OF HIRING IN SINCE THEY ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE THE RIGHT TO WORK IN THE UNITED STATES THAT ITS CRUCIAL TO ASSURE ALL REQUIREMENTS ARE MET W/ THE THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. I MAYBE MISTAKEN BUT I THOUGHT IT READ SOMETHING TO THAT FACT. AMERICAN WORK AVAILIBILITY IS SCARCE BUT (WHO) MADE IT THAT WAY. LOOK @ IF YOU REMOVED ALL FOREIGNERS HOW MANY JOBS WOULD THAT OPEN UP TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BUT YET THE GOVERMENT IS TRIPPING OVER THIS WHEN THEY ALLOWED THEM TO WORK IN THIS COUNTRY! LIKE I EXCLAIMED IN OTHER COMMENT IT APPEARS TO BE A MONEY THING. ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY WHEN IT COMES TO THE GOVERMENT. NOT WHATS ACTUALLY TAKING PLACE ITS THAT WE MISSED THEM $$$$$$$$'S OUT OF OCI/BV'S POCKET I WISH ALOT OF OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES WERE ADDRESSED AS MUCH AS THIS HAS BEEN. IT JUST SOUNDS LIKE THIS IS THE ISSUE @ HAND NOT WHAT WAS OR WAS NOT FOLLOWED BY LAW! AND TO AS LETTING THE PHILLIPINE WORKERS GO BECAUSE OF THIS ISSUE @ HAND IS NOT TRUE I WOULDNT THINK SEEINGS HOW THEY ARE DOING A LAY OFF IRREGUARDLESS OF FROM WHERE YOU CAME FROM OCI/BV HAS LOWERED THEIR NEEDS FOR MANPOWER SINCE THEY ARE @ A POINT IN THEIR JOB THAT NOT AS MANY EMPLOYEES ARE NEEDED @ THIS TIME. I WOULD SAY LETS FOCUS ON WHAT NEEDS TO BE RATHER THAN THINGS THAT THEIR IMPORTANCE ARE MUTE TO OTHER ISSUES GOING ON AROUND US!!! ILLEGALS ARE NOT GOOD BUT THESE GUYS & OR GALS WERE NOT ILLEGAL. THE LEGALITIES THAT IS SET UPON US IS ENORMOUS. ALSO WHEN WILL WE SEE SOME GOOD REPORE ABOUT OCI/BV YA KNOW THEY HAVE PROVIDED JOBS FOR ALOT OF PEOPLE IN THIS COMMUNITY BUT PEOPLE HAVE NO WILLINGNESS, NOR MOTIVATION TO WORK. ONE BECAUSE THE GOVERMENT HAS MADE IT ENTIRELY TO EASY TO NOT! THIS JOB SOUNDS TO BE A GREAT EXPERIENCE TO LEARN & SUCCEED TO PURSUE A BETTER WAY OF LIFE PEOPLE NEED TO UTILIZE THIS. IT GIVES GREAT KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE WILLINGNESS TO ALLOW MOST ALL THE RIGHT TO BE EMPLOYED BY SUCH A GREAT COMPANY ALL PLACES HAVE FLAS AS SUCH AS ALL PEOPLE DO!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Bjnemp (anonymous) on April 14, 2008 at 5:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
486mar: WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING AT US! Using all caps makes you come off as a screaming, out of control radical. Chill out, and take off the cap lock. I think you'll find your thoughts to be better received.
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