Denied Unescorted Access Priveledges for NLO position

[dziskovs]

I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight into my current situation.  I previously held UA during an engineering internship this previous summer.  I gained that access after having a DUI a year and a half prior, and was given an outstanding review at the end of the summer.

In September of 09, the house I live in while at college had a party and got a Disorderly House.  There were no arrests associated with it, I went to court to plead guilty and it was over with.  The ticket went in my name because I answered the door, and I thought nothing of it.  I applied for an NLO position and received an offer, and put the charge down on my UA authorization forms, and was told I need to have a Substance Abuse Evaluation in which no treatment was recommended, but there was a line stating that I "would benefit from an alcohol educational course."  I was told to sign up for a class, and then I would be eligible for the job.  I signed up for a course at the local community college that day and reported it to the site.  I was then told I needed to complete the course before I could gain UA. 

A day later I was called by my corporate recruiter and told that my offer had been rescinded due to not being able to gain UA privileges.

I guess my biggest question is, do I have grounds for an appeal, or is there even such process?

I looked a little at the 10 CFR 73.57 documents, and they all concern arrests, so I don't know if they apply to my situation.

[HydroDave63]

no recourse. You hadn't finished the dry out course prior to start date.

You plead guilty to something,right? You had to go to court. There's your sign.

In a way, the recruiter did you a favor. Having not badged, there probably isn't an adverse PADS post for you. Dry out, wait a year and try again, might get lucky and get hired.

[dziskovs]

In response to the start date issue, I was never told a start date, I was just told I would be granted access after I had the course completed. Also it was not a "dry out" course.  It was just a less than 10 hr multi session class about alcohol awareness and what it does to people.

[Nuclear NASCAR]

A day later I was called by my corporate recruiter and told that my offer had been rescinded due to not being able to gain UA privileges.

I guess my biggest question is, do I have grounds for an appeal, or is there even such process?

It appears the company had already started the background check and was basing their decision on conditions present at that time.  

As Dave said in his post, since you aren't badged there probably isn't adverse info in PADS.  Finish the course and try again.

[redline]

Agree, no recourse...you cannot make them hire you, and you did mess up.

Disagree, PADS means nothing, when applying you have to answer all questions truthfully. Getting caught in a lie is not something that you can rehabilitate. So Mr. NLO, have you ever been....... the answer is yes of course. But here's what I've done to correct or rehablilitate myself......
After rehab and time you should be OK especially when you explain you were in college at the time. One thing to remember though for everyone. A DUI is always forgiven, but a second alcohol offense means you have a serious problem, whether you really do or not.

[dziskovs]

I was not caught in a lie in this situation... I reported it on my application in October, and again on my UA reinstatement form in the middle of January.  If I would have lied about it, I agree there should be no recourse, but I was upfront with it from the beginning.  And a Disorderly House is basically a noise complaint from a residence that I will not even be living in once I start the job, so there would be no chance of ever getting another offense such as this on my record.  I'm not looking for any sympathy, I was just looking to see if anyone else had a similar situation where they were able to gain UA after being denied.

[redline]

Not suggesting you lied, saying that if you fail to disclose information you have in fact lied and that would be grounds for permanent denial. Therefore the PADS information makes little difference in your case...you must disclose.

Fact of the matter is; if a utility sees more than one alcohol or potential alcohol offense, they will require some sort of rehab prior to issuing clearance.

Do people get reinstated after being denied? yes, happens all the time. The question is though, does this particular utility want to invest any more time in you without your having completed rehab. I would think almost always the answer would be no.

Do the rehab - whether you need it or not - then try again.

[thenuttyneutron]

I have seen so many kids royally screw their life up for alcohol.  They all think it is so much fun to get shit faced and act like fools.  I have seen multiple kids lose their ROTC scholarships, many of them full rides, while I was in college due to alcohol.  Some of them had pilot slots after they graduated.  All of it is gone because they were stupid just once. 

Try to see it from their view point.  It is not quite in the same level as what a felon faces when looking for a job, but serious enough that you will have these troubles every time you try to get a job at a nuke plant.  There is no room for error for many of these good jobs when there are so many other people competing for them.  There are plenty of other qualified people that don’t carry the baggage.  The amount of time and money that must be put in to training a new NLO is huge.  Where are they going to invest their money if given two choices between a guy with multiple alcohol related charges or a guy with a clean record?

I have always found that people usually don’t get caught on their “first time”.  Usually a bad pattern of behavior is present for a while before it catches up to them.  The first run in with the law just documents that there was a problem at one time.  The second one set the trend.  The first one alone is bad enough.  When you add in the second one, it raises many red flags.  If I were going through and looking at this info, I would see a guy with an alcohol problem.  Usually guys with alcohol problems are not reliable.  They often show up to work late or call off sick because they are hung over.  Would a utility want a worker that has these issues?

People usually get wiser as they get older.  I hope you can take this experience and turn it into a lesson in life from the school of hard knocks.  There are always consequences when you get in trouble with the law man.  As you can see, one of these consequences is a long way down your path in life.  I do hope you have learned the lesson well and can truly change your life.  Go get the classes that they told you to take.  Think about this experience every time you decide to have fun and drink with your buddies.  I think you can recover from this, but it will be very hard.