Fired, rehired and fired again, some NOAA employees get letters demanding money

Some former employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who have been dismissed, rehired and dismissed this spring have declared that they have received debt notices from the federal government to reimburse it for health care coverage. These workers also say that opinions are intended for the coverage they have never had.

Workers say that it is the last development of a dismissal process muddled in confusion, poor communication and missing documents when confronted with the most basic questions in the workplace.

Three former NOAA employees shared letters entitled “Payment request opinion” with NBC News. The letters, dated June 16, said that the employees had a debt – sometimes hundreds of dollars – and this interest could be billed. The letters also warned that the debt would be reported to a credit office if it was unpaid.

“It is a very dark and threatening language,” said Sarah Cooley, who was dismissed as director of the agency’s ocean acidification program at the end of February.

It is not clear how many workers who have been dismissed have received the letter. Two former NOAA employees told NBC News that they had not received such a letter.

The opinion indicates that the costs relate to health care premiums for the eighth and ninth periods of remuneration of the year, at a time when their health coverage plans had already expired, workers said.

“They try to charge me for health insurance after being dismissed. I had no coverage, “said Ya’el Seid-Green, a former special assistant at the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Office of the Noaa. “It’s just more salt in the injury on how it was incompetent.”

Kim Doster, a NOAA spokesperson, said the agency could not comment on the personnel issues in progress and asked questions to the staff management office. A spokesperson for the OPM said that the agency did not have access to staff or pay files in other agencies, such as the NOAA. The trade department, which oversees the NOAA, has not responded.

After NBC News has inquired about the problem with the NOAA media affairs group, the probationary employees received a recognition of a possible error from the agency in an email.

“Our office has been informed that you may have received a debt notice from the National Finance Center (NFC),” said the email to the probationary employees. “Please know that we are working with NFC to resolve this problem. No action is necessary on your part at the moment. We will keep you posted because we have more information. ”

In February, the Commerce Department dismissed more than 600 probationary employees of the NOAA, including hurricane hunters, meteorologists and storm modelers. Probation employees are generally in the first or second year of a new position at the agency.

In mid-March, a judge ordered many workers to be reinstated and the Noaa placed them on administrative leave. Then, in early April, the Supreme Court interrupted some of the reinstatement and the NOAA dismissed workers for the second time.

The former employees said that the fire rush and the reinstatement of workers had led to paperwork and confusion errors, and that they are unable to obtain responses from the agency.

Sabrina Valenti, former NOAA budgetary analyst, said that she still had not received a separation document from the agency.

“I was dismissed four months ago and I still have no evidence that I was dismissed,” she said.

And the workers said they had not been able to access health benefits that should have been at their disposal during reinstatement. Seid-Green underwent surgery in April, at a time when she was on administrative leave.

“We obtained payroll checks for administrative leave and our health insurance was deducted,” she said.

After surgery, Seid-Green learned that his health coverage was not active.

Later, she signed up for a temporary continuation of the coverage, a program that allows government workers who have left their roles to pay retroactively for health services. But it didn’t work either.

Seid-Green said it means that she has mainly paid twice for health coverage that she had not yet received.

“I receive letters demanding a payment of more than $ 14,000 for my surgery,” she said. “Not only did they not give us a blanket for which we paid, but now they send us debt opinions for the cover that we did not have.”

Tim Whitehouse, Executive Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PER), a non -profit organization that supports environmental workers and has followed these administrative problems, said errors suggest leadership problems within the agency.

“They cause emotional and financial costs on these employees. The Ministry of Commerce is the worst-quote me on this subject, “he said. “Other agencies have solved these problems. They did not appear in other agencies. This is a problem with the Ministry of Commerce and a leadership problem. ”