Houses Passes Defense Bill with Overtime Provision
WASHINGTON — Puget Sound Naval Shipyard employees who volunteer to work on an aircraft carrier based in Japan would be eligible for overtime pay if a major Defense bill passed overwhelmingly Thursday in the House becomes law.
The provision, pushed by U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, extends the authority of the Navy to pay the civilian shipyard workers time and an half after 40 hours until Sept. 30, 2015. Without congressional action, which requires a Senate assent, the authority will expire at the end of September.
Kilmer’s original amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act called for an extension through September 2017. But some members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee demanded that a three-year extension await a report from the Office of Personnel Management justifying the overtime, which some believe is subject to abuse.
“When folks from our region and from others head overseas for maintenance (work) they were running into a problem,” Kilmer said in an interview after the bill passed. “They were in danger of losing overtime they receive in the United States for making carrier repairs that are needed while they’re overseas, and that didn’t seem right to me.”
“Why should we ask talented workers to go overseas, be away from their families and receive less compensation?” he asked. “I want to see us keep a talented workforce and show them that we have their backs The one-year extension gives us time to reach a long-term solution — hopefully, to solve the problem once and for all.”
Overtime, plus a generous per diem for expenses, are major incentives to get the finite number of highly skilled shipyard workers to volunteer for the overseas duty, according to Rick Williams, president of the Bremerton Metal Trades Council, the umbrella group overseeing shipyard workers’ unions in the area. Bremerton marine insulator Cathy Deno, who has volunteered in the past for the Japan duty, has said the benefits were a decisive factor in her decision and that sending more workers to avoid having to pay overtime doesn’t make financial sense.
Hundreds of civilian shipyard workers travel from the United States to Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture to work on the USS George Washington. The George Washington is the centerpiece of the U.S. Seventh Fleet and patrols the Western Pacific and Indian oceans.
Kilmer also proposed an amendment to prevent Department of Defense employees paid through the Working Capital Funds from being furloughed at military work sites because of sequestration, the across-the-board budget cuts authorized last year. Working capital funds are accounts that collect sales revenue rather than Congressional appropriations to finance specific projects.
Kilmer said 1,400 workers in Washington state are tied to working capital funds, including some at Naval Undersea Warfare Center Keyport.
“When we had the last spate of furloughs, you had workers at Keyport who would otherwise be showing up for work to do important work for our national security basically being told to stay home,” Kilmer said.
“And the downside of this is, not only does this have an impact on military readiness, not only does it impact our defense workforce, it doesn’t save any money,” he said. “This does not save taxpayer money.”
Kilmer was one of several congressmen last year questioning the Defense Department’s legal justification for furloughing working capital-funded workers. In response, Defense Department comptroller Robert Hale said it was both legal and saved $500 million nationwide. At the time the one-day-a-week furloughs began last July, the undersea warfare operation at Keyport had 1,289 employees supported by working capital funds.
Kilmer was able to get his amendments and other provisions he backed in the final bill through bargaining with important Republicans, including House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa of California. Kilmer serves on the Armed Services Committee that generates the annual Defense programs bill.
One provision will maintain the level of physicians enrolled at the Navy’s graduate medical education program at Naval Hospital Bremerton. Others keep ongoing major construction work, like the controversial explosives-handling wharf for Trident submarines at Naval Base Kitsap Bangor and the upgrade of the water treatment system at Naval Base Kitsap.
Kilmer voted with the majority in the lopsided 325-98 vote for passage of the Defense bill.