EEOICPA BULLETIN NO. 04-09
Issue Date:
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Effective Date:
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Expiration Date:
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Subject: Center to Protect Workers’ Rights (CPWR).
Background: The Division of Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation (DEEOIC) has received numerous claims from
employees who worked in jobs related to construction or trade (construction
workers, electricians, plumbers, etc.) in the nuclear weapons industry. Given that these jobs are usually performed
under a subcontract, obtaining reliable documentation to verify employment has
proven difficult and time consuming.
To
assist in the collection of relevant evidence, the DEEOIC has contracted with The
Center to Protect Workers’ Rights (CPWR) for assistance in obtaining records pertinent
to construction and trade employees at DOE, Atomic Weapons Employer or
Beryllium Vendor facilities. The DEEOIC
has contracted with the CPWR due to their extensive access to records and their
ongoing relationship to various worker advocate organizations. CPWR is a research,
development, and training arm of the Building and Construction Trades
Department (BCTD), of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial
Organizations (AFL-CIO). This unique relationship with the BCTD allows CPWR
direct access to the 15 building and construction trades international unions,
signatory contractors, union health and welfare and pension funds. As a
consequence, they have access to employment records, union rosters and dispatch
records. In addition, CPWR has an
extensive institutional knowledge and working experience with several DOE
sites.
CPWR has been tasked to research and
provide employment information for construction/trade worker claims where
the Department of Labor (DOL) has been unable to obtain reliable information through
available resources (i.e. DOE, corporate verifiers). CPWR is solely an
information collection agent of the DEEOIC.
They serve no function in determining coverage for benefits, nor are
they permitted to offer opinion as to the validity of the evidence presented to
substantiate a claim. The CE retains the
responsibility for evaluating evidence and making any judgment
concerning covered employment. CPWR will
be asked to provide any information or documentation that substantiates the
following items:
(1) Evidence that a contractual relationship
existed between the covered facility and the identified employer (contractor)
during a specific time period;
(2) Evidence that the claimant was an employee
of the covered employer during the claimed time period;
(3) Evidence that the employee worked on site
at the covered facility.
Initially CPWR will be unable to assist DEEOIC with each and
every construction and trade claim. CPWR’s assistance will be prioritized based on construction/trade
claims by facility starting with the DOE facilities for
Reference: EEOICPA Bulletin 03-27,
Establishing Covered Subcontractor Employment
Purpose: To provide procedures for obtaining
employment documents from CPWR.
Applicability: All Staff
Actions:
1. When the
CE reaches the point in case development where he or she has attempted
employment verification through the DOE or a corporate verifier, and received a
negative response, consideration is to be given for referring the case to CPWR.
2. A referral to CPWR is contingent on the
facility where employment occurred and the type of job claimed. CPWR will coordinate with the National Office
the submission of two lists. One will
identify the facilities where CPWR can provide assistance. The second will identify the types of jobs to
which CPWR is likely to have information, such as construction or building
trades. These lists will be made
available to each District Office and will be periodically updated. For a CPWR referral
to proceed, the claimed employment must identify both a facility and job type appearing
on the lists provided.
3. If
a CE determines that any period of claimed employment satisfies both the facility
and job type criteria for CPWR consideration, he or she must confer with the designated
District Office Point of Contact (POC). The POC is selected by each District
Office to serve as the principal liaison between DEEOIC and CPWR. There will be
one POC per District Office. The designated
POC is responsible for all communication between the district office and CPWR. Moreover, the POC is responsible for
certifying outgoing referrals and reviewing incoming responses.
4. If
the POC agrees that the situation requires a CPWR referral, the appropriate
forms are to be prepared. There are two
principle forms used to make a CPWR referral:
A CP-1 Referral Sheet and CP-2 Employment Response Report (Attachments 1
& 2). The CP-1 provides general
information concerning the employee’s case file. The CP-2 is a form CPWR uses to respond to
employment data requests made by the DEEOIC.
5. The
CP-1 is to be completed by either the CE or the POC. Section 1 requires information concerning the
case to be listed, such as employee name, claim type, file number and Social
Security Number. In Section 2, the
referring District Office is to be identified along with the number of attached
CP-2 Employment Response Reports. Any
special requests or other relevant information for CPWR is to be listed in the
comment section.
6. For
each claimed employer at a facility where CPWR can provide assistance, a separate
CP-2 Employment Response Report is to be prepared by the CE. The CE or POC may make as many copies of the
form as necessary. The CP-2 contains two
sections. Section 1 is completed by the
CE or POC and describes the employment to be researched by CPWR. It is important that the information specify
both the periods of employment requiring verification and the type of evidence
being requested such as evidence of contractual relationship, proof of employment
with the claimed employer, or evidence of employment on the premise of the
claimed facility. Section 2 of the CP-2
is reserved for CPWR to report any findings pertaining to the claimed
employment.
7. Upon completion of the DOL’s
portions of the CP-1 and CP-2, the POC is to conduct a complete review of all
the material. He or she is to ensure
that the information contained in the referral forms is reported accurately and
satisfies all the requirements for submission to CPWR. Once the review is
completed and the POC is satisfied that the CP-1 and all CP-2 forms are
completed correctly, he or she is to sign and date the CP-1. The CP-1 Referral Sheet is to be certified
on the day the referral is mailed out of the district office.
8. Once the
referral forms are completed and certified by the POC, copies of both the
referral sheets and the case file are to be made. The POC or CE will attach the
original CP-1 and CP-2 sheets to a copy of the case file. This constitutes a complete CPWR referral
package. The entire package will be express
mailed to CPWR. Copies of the CP-1 and
CP-2 forms are to be inserted into the official case file.
9. On the
same day that the referral package is mailed to CPWR, notification of CPWR
involvement in the case is to be prepared for each known claimant. The CE or POC is to prepare a cover letter for
each claimant that describes CPWR’s involvement in
the case (Attachment 3). This cover
letter should be transmitted to the claimant(s) on the same date of referral to
CPWR.
10. A
referral to CPWR is performed concurrent to other required developmental
actions, such as requests for wage information from the Social Security
Administration, or development letters to the claimant. The CE should not delay undertaking other
avenues of development of a case while awaiting a response from CPWR.
11. CPWR will initially be able to accept a limited
number of referral response packages. The DEEOIC National Office will advise
the district offices of the weekly allowable number of cases to be submitted to
CPWR. Once the POC determines the number
of cases to be sent to CPWR during a given week, he or she is to batch all the
referrals and express mail them on Monday of each week to:
Zenith
Administrators
1-800-866-9663
12. The POC is the ultimate arbiter of all issues
involving the CPWR referral process. He or she is not to certify for submission
any referral package that does not meet the requirements for referral. Any incomplete or inaccurate referral package
should be returned to the CE. The POC is to notify the CE of any deficiency and
the steps necessary to correct the problem. CPWR is permitted to contact claimants
directly. However, any request for
claimant contact must be submitted to the POC, who will then provide the
necessary contact information.
13. The POC is responsible for tracking all CPWR referrals
and responses. For each referral, the
District Office must track the following information:
a. case number
b. facility name(s),
c. employer name(s),
d. date of referral to CPWR,
e. date response received from CPWR,
f. CE
initiating request.
Twice a month, the DO POC will send the National
Office an email summarizing the number of CPWR referrals and responses for the preceding
two week period, outstanding requests (>40 days), and the total number of referrals
to date. Contractually, CPWR can process
a limited number of claims during the contracted time period. Therefore, the report will assist the
National Office in determining the number of requests allowed by each District
office on a monthly basis.
14. The CE
or POC is to enter the claim status code “
15. After inputting
the “
16. The CE
will also enter a 40 day call-up in ECMS effective the date of referral. If a CE receives a call up notice indicating
40 days has elapsed and a response from CPWR has not been received, he/she will
send notification via email to the POC. Upon
receipt of the notification, the POC is to verify the delinquency and list it
in their tracking program. The POC is
then responsible for contacting CPWR by telephone or email to advise of the
overdue request. The POC is to input a claim
status code of “DE” (Developing
Employment) in the claim status history screen of ECMS effective the date contact
is made with CPWR concerning an overdue response. The CE or POC selects “CPWR” from the reason
code list box. All phone calls or email are to be appropriately recorded in the
case file. The POC has three working
days to report all overdue referrals to CPWR.
Moreover, he or she must update the status of the referral in the CPWR
tracking program.
17. CPWR has thirty calendar days from receipt of a
referral package to conduct appropriate research into the claimed employment, complete
each CP-2 based on the evidence gathered, and express mail the response to the
appropriate POC. Responses are to be bundled according to case file number.
18. District
Office mailroom staff are to date stamp incoming
responses according to established procedures and forward it to the designated
POC. The POC is to enter the receipt
date in the tracking database and immediately forward the CPWR response to the
appropriate CE.
19. Upon receipt of a CPWR response, the CE or POC enters
the claim status code “UR” (Received
from Union) in the claim status history screen in ECMS with the status
effective date equal to the date the referral was date stamped received by the
DO.
20. When
reviewing the CPWR response, the CE or POC is to ensure it is complete. The CE or POC checks to ensure that the
number of CP-2 forms per bundle corresponds with the number of referrals
identified on the CP-1 form. Each CP-2
form is to be marked according to the information found, submitted with any
supporting documentation and signed by a representative of the CPWR. In particular, CPWR is required to complete the
Search
Results section on the CP-2 for each employer noting: the evidence located; whether it resulted in
sufficient evidence to support the developmental components identified by the
CE requiring assistance; comments to include where the information came from
and how to interpret; a summary of all the evidence; contact information for
potential affiants; and contact information for the CPWR employee who conducted
the search.
21. When
reviewing the evidence, generally, there are five categories of records that
can be submitted to the CE for consideration.
The categories are listed in the CPWR Research Results section of the CP-2
Employment Response Report and will be marked if corresponding evidence is submitted. These
categories include: Union Dispatch/Log,
Pension Fund, Health & Welfare, Facility/Site, DOE Former Worker Program,
and other. To assist the CE in
distinguishing between the categories of records, the evidence will be labeled
as follows: A – Union Dispatch; B -
Pension; C - Health Fund Records; D - Former Worker Program Records; E - Site
Records.
(A) Union dispatch/log
– records
that show the placement of a worker to a specific jobsite and/or
contractor. These records are filed at
the local union hall or with the union steward on the jobsite. A dispatch record may provide the following
information: worker’s name, social security number, job title, project being
assigned to, the date of assignment, the company/employer, hire/termination
date, and pay scale.
(B)
Pension fund – records maintained by a pension fund established
pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement between a building and
construction trades union and one or more employers to act as a trust for the
purpose of providing pension benefits to employees covered by the collective
bargaining agreement.
(C)
Health and welfare – records maintained by a health and
welfare fund established pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement between
a building and construction trades union and one or more employers, to act as a
trust for the purpose of providing pension group health, life, disability and
similar benefits to employees covered by the collective bargaining
agreement.
(D) Former Worker Program (FWP) - These programs evaluated the long-term health
conditions of former workers who may be risk of occupational diseases due to
their former employment at certain DOE sites. These projects evaluate former
workers at the following sites: Hanford Site, Nevada Test Site, Rocky Flats
Environmental Technology Site, Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Paducah
Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Oak Ridge Reservation, Savannah River Site, Idaho
National Energy and Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Los
Alamos National Laboratory,
Information reported in the FWP Work History Interview can be
accepted as accurate and true so long as the interview occurred prior to
(E) Facility/Site - records that CPWR has
obtained previously or concurrently from the DOE facility such as a certified
payroll, a personnel record, or a collective bargaining agreement.
22. The CE is responsible for carefully assessing
the relevance of any evidence or information submitted by CPWR. Judgments regarding covered employment rely
on a careful examination of not only the evidence submitted by CPWR, but other
sources as well. The CE should be mindful
to ensure that the evidence submitted by CPWR reasonably substantiates
allegations of employment brought forth by an employee or survivors. The evidence must reasonably satisfy all the
components necessary to establish covered employment. In any instance where the CE questions or
does not understand the nature of the information supplied by CPWR, he or she must
request the POC to contact CPWR for clarification.
23.
Upon review of the evidence received
from CPWR, the CE or POC must re-enter the “Worksite Desc”
note field in ECMS and amend the “CPWR
Pending” note for each worksite for which CPWR is providing
assistance. He or she will delete the
"CPWR Pending" and replace it with one of the following as the first
characters of the note field:
CPWR Assisted All - when “ALL” of the data requested from
CPWR assisted in establishing covered employment.
CPWR Assisted Partial - when a portion of
the data requested from CPWR assisted in establishing covered employment.
CPWR Assisted None - when “NONE” of the data requested
from CPWR assisted in establishing covered employment.
24. The DEEOIC is the ultimate arbiter of any
disputes arising between the program and CPWR.
If the POC encounters an instance where a question of interpretation has
arisen that can not be resolved through normal discourse with CPWR, the issue
should be referred to the Branch of Policies, Regulations and Procedures. A memo is to be prepared outlining the issue
to be resolved. Copies of the completed referral form(s) and any other relevant
employment documentation are to be attached.
All referrals prepared for the National Office are to be certified by
the appropriate POC and District Director.
Disposition: Retain until incorporated in the Federal
(EEOICPA) Procedure Manual.
PETER M. TURCIC
Director, Division of Energy Employees
Distribution List No. 1: Claims Examiners, Supervisory Claims Examiners, Technical Assistants, Customer Service Representatives, Fiscal Officers, FAB District Managers, Operation Chiefs, Hearing Representatives, District Office Mail & File Sections