Some former employees of the Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration who were fired, again hired and fire this spring say that they have received federal government debt warnings to return it for medical care coverage. These workers also say that the notices are for the coverage they never had.
The workers say that it is the last development in a shooting process in confusion, poor communication and lack of paperwork, since they face the most basic questions in the workplace.
Three former employees of NOAA shared letters entitled “Payment demand warning” with NBC News. The letters, dated June 16, affirmed that employees owed a debt, sometimes hundreds of dollars, and that interest could be charged. The letters also warned that the debt would be informed to a credit office if not paid.
“It is a very gloomy and threatening language,” said Sarah Cooley, who was fired as director of the Agency’s Oceanic Acidification Program at the end of February.
It is not clear exactly how many workers who were fired received the letter. Two former NOAA employees told NBC News who did not receive any letter.
The notice says that the position is for medical care premiums for the eighth and ninth payment periods of the year, a time when their health coverage plans had already expired, workers said.
“They are trying to bill me for health insurance after they fired me. I had no coverage,” said Ya’el Seid-Green, a special assistant in the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Office of NOAA. “It’s just more salt in the wound on how incompetent this has been.”
Kim Doster, a NOAA spokeswoman, said the agency could not comment on current personnel issues and questions addressed to the staff management office, which did not answer immediately. The Commerce Department, which supervises Noaa, did not respond.
After NBC News asked about the problem with the NOAA Media Affairs Group, probabilities employees received recognition of a possible error error in an email.
“Our office has been aware that a debt warning from the National Finance Center (NFC) may have received,” email told the test employees. “Please, know that we are working with NFC to solve this. You don’t need action at this time. We will keep it updated since we have more information.”
In February, the Trade Department triggered more than 600 test employees in NOAA, including hurricane hunters, meteorologists and storm models. Test workers are usually in the first or second year of a new position in the agency.
In mid -March, a judge ordered that many workers be reinstated and NOAA placed them on administrative license. Then, at the beginning of April, the Supreme Court arrested some of the reincorporations and Noa said goodbye to the workers for the second time.
The former employees said that the rush to shoot and restore workers has led to paperwork and confusion errors, and that they cannot obtain responses from the agency.
Sabrina Valenti, former NOAA budget analyst, said he had not yet received separation paperwork from the agency.
“I was fired four months ago and I still have no evidence that they told me,” he said.
And the workers said they have not been able to access the health benefits that should have been available for them during restoration. Seid-Green underwent surgery in April, at a time when he was on administrative license.
“We were receiving payment checks for administrative license and our health insurance was deducting from it,” he said.
After surgery, Seid-Green learned that his health coverage was not active.
Later, he enrolled for a temporary continuation of coverage, a program that allows government workers who have left their roles retroactively pay health benefits. But that has not worked either.
Seid-Gren said that this means that he has essentially paid twice for the health coverage he has not yet received.
“I receive letters that require payment of more than $ 14,000 for my surgery,” he said. “Not only did they not give us coverage for which we pay, now they are sending us debt notices for the coverage we did not have.”
Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees of Environmental Responsibility (Peer), a non -profit organization that supports environmental workers and has been tracking these administrative problems, said errors suggest leadership problems within the agency.
“They are causing emotional and financial costs to these employees. The Department of Commerce is the worst, cit me about that,” he said. “Other agencies have solved these problems. They have not emerged in other agencies. This is a problem of the Department of Commerce and a leadership problem.”
