The Emporia Gazette

August 30, 2008

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The subcontractor that supplied unauthorized foreign workers for the construction of the Emporia Energy Center apologized to Sen. Jim Barnett and citizens of Emporia in a letter sent to Barnett late last week.

Integrated Service Company, a Tulsa, Okla.-based company also known as InServ, said “an unintentional error” was responsible for the employment of Filipino welders and pipefitters during the construction of the Westar Energy peaking plant. The Filipinos were in the United States on H-2B work visas, which allow them to fill jobs for which there are an insufficient number of American workers.

In order to properly certify the workers for the Westar project, InServ would have needed to notify the Kansas Department of Commerce, which is federally required to verify that not enough American workers are available to fill the jobs. That notification never took place. InServ was a subcontractor for Overland Contracting, a subsidiary of Black & Veatch, which contracted with Westar for the plant construction.

“In summary regarding the Westar project, I would note that the H-2B visa holders working under contract to Integrated Service Company, LLC were properly documented for work in the United States,” Randi Donaldson, InServ’s managing counsel, wrote to Barnett. “However, they were not approved to work on the Westar project due to an internal failure on our part to obtain the required needs assessment for these workers in advance of their assignment in Lyon County.”

Donaldson’s letter stated that InServ performed an internal compliance audit and discovered the workers in question “should be reassigned. We worked closely with Black & Veatch to withdraw the affected craftsmen in a manner that would result in full immigration compliance and yet have as minimal adverse impact on the project as possible.”

The last InServ workers remaining at the Westar site were scheduled to be released from the project April 11. A Black & Veatch representative said in April that the workers were done with their assigned tasks, and that the controversy about their status had nothing to do with their release from the project.

“We know the Westar project is important to you and to the citizens of Emporia and we want to take this opportunity to apologize for what was an unintentional error and provide information that will hopefully reassure you of our commitment to preventing future compliance issues in this regard,” Donaldson wrote to Barnett.

The letter didn’t say where the Filipino workers had been reassigned. Donaldson couldn’t be reached Monday.

Along with the letter, Donaldson sent Barnett an “Immigration Plan Fact Sheet” that detailed InServ’s plan for immigration compliance. The plan included retaining a national immigration law firm to provide compliance advice, developing a company-wide immigration plan, the hiring of an immigration coordinator for InServ’s human resources department and performing regular internal audits of immigration-related activities.

Barnett said he was pleased with InServ’s response to the situation.

“And to me ... this reflects the partnering that has to occur with business and both state and national government,” Barnett said, “because part of the reason we have the need for ... immigration reform is businesses. ... So I think for businesses to step up and clean up their hiring practices is a very positive sign.”

Rep. Candy Ruff, D-Leavenworth, began an inquiry into the Westar worker situation in March and had been exploring whether federal action can be taken against InServ, Black & Veatch or Westar. Ruff, who is completing her last term in the Kansas Legislature, said that when companies like InServ are exposed for illegal hiring practices, they go to great lengths to cover their tracks.

“Now, do I trust those bastards? Not in a New York minute do I trust ’em,” Ruff said before being sent a copy of Donaldson’s letter. “Because I think that, although they’ve gotten kind of their (expletive) in a ringer right now with the kind of things that they have been exposed to having been done, same (expletive), different day — they just got caught in Kansas. ...

“This is all about making money off cheap labor, and I don’t think that’s gonna stop anytime soon. I really don’t.”

Barnett said the immigration laws that require businesses to employ legal workers should have teeth.

“If laws have been broken, then, like everyone else, there should be appropriate consequences,” he said.

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