OWCP News Release: [06/02/2010]
Contact Name: Jesse Lawder Michael Volpe
Phone Number: (202) 693-4659 (202) 693-3984
Release Number: 10-0768-PHI
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor is notifying all former Westinghouse Electric Corp. employees who worked at the Bloomfield, N.J., site between Aug. 13, 1942, and Dec. 31, 1949, about a new class of employees added to the Special Exposure Cohort of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. The act provides compensation and medical benefits to workers who became ill as a result of working in the nuclear weapons industry. Survivors of qualified workers may also be entitled to benefits.
A worker who is included in a designated SEC class of employees, and who is diagnosed with one of 22 specified cancers, may receive a presumption of causation under the EEOICPA. On April 5, 2010, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC: all Atomic Weapons Employer employees who worked at Westinghouse Electric Corp. in Bloomfield, N.J., from Aug. 13, 1942, through Dec. 31, 1949, for at least 250 workdays occurring either solely under this employment or in combination with workdays within other classes of employees in the SEC. This designation became effective on May 5, 2010. The Labor Department’s role is to adjudicate these claims based on the new SEC class definitions as determined and introduced by the Department of Health and Human Services.
For additional information about the new SEC at Westinghouse Electric Corp., or to schedule an appointment for claim-filing assistance, contact the Labor Department’s New York Resource Center toll-free at 800-941-3943.
###