Unfavorable Termination of Access

[TamiyaFan1]

All,

I was given an unfavorable access termination about 18 months ago from a utility over an email issue.  The long and short of it was a person that I met on the internet was trying to blackmail me into providing them with money and were sending me semi-nude and nude pictures of themselves trying to entice me to provide them with funds.  The utility suspended my UAA and the contractor that I was working for had no re-course but to terminate my employment.  The utility leveled a suspension of five (5) years where I am red flagged from being on any of their properties.  As a tradesman, I have attempted to regain access and employment from two other utilities with no success.  Both of these attempts were made within a year.  I have not made any new attempts since January of 2016.  My financial situation is in dire straits and I need to try and get back into nuclear work for the money.  The jest of this post is I am seeking thoughts, similar situation outcomes and/or recommendations of what I can do to either be able to get some kind of clearance back or reduce the suspension time period.  To give you a background a executive committee met on this original termination and suspension and I was not allowed to address these "charges" or to even defend myself in any way.  This was my first offense of any kind after over 25 years of an absolute spotless FFD, security, and safety record.  I mean if I failed an FFD or other incident the suspension from this utility would have been for only three (3) years instead of five.  Any help, information or recommendations will be greatly appreciated!!

TamiyaFan1

[snowman]

One word...DOE

[SloGlo]

too words.... call lawyers

[TamiyaFan1]

Snowman,

What do you mean DOE?  I had a "Q" Clearance back in the 1980's and have basically kept it updated but with this "unfavorable" hanging over my head, I feel like my nuclear days are over at least until I live out this suspension.  Any advice?  Thanks!

TamiyaFan1

[TamiyaFan1]

SloGo,

I have already spoke to one lawyer, and was able to show him the paperwork that the utility had on me and after reviewing the emails, he told me that I was not stern enough in my text in telling this person to stop using my utility email address.  He more or less told me that it apparently appeared to the utility that I was asking here to send the pictures.  It was like he said that my conversation appeared liked I was enjoying giving the person money just so I could get more pictures.  Any advice about other avenues that a lawyer may need to be contacted to help my current situation would be greatly appreciated!!  Thanks!!

TamiyaFan1

[Marlin]

Snowman,

What do you mean DOE?  I had a "Q" Clearance back in the 1980's and have basically kept it updated but with this "unfavorable" hanging over my head, I feel like my nuclear days are over at least until I live out this suspension.  Any advice?  Thanks!

TamiyaFan1

How do you keep a DOE Q updated? Normally it is terminated shortly after you walk out the door unless you are kept on the books of a company willing to hold your clearance such as one of the companies that need or supply escorts.

[TamiyaFan1]

Martin,

My statement about keeping the "Q" clearance updated is a bit inaccurate.  The last time I was in possession of the clearance was in late 1988.  But I have worked in nuclear construction up until this latest incident.  I have maintained accurate records of all of the information that would be needed to re-apply for a "Q" clearance.  Not only have I maintained a data base of all the jobs that I have had and my immediate supervisors personal contact information, I have also included the places that I stayed.  I can give you the contact information for the manager and the owner of every motel, hotel, apartment, and/or trailer that I have stayed for every job that I have had since 1988.  When I am on the road, I average 6 jobs a year and I can produce every little tidbit of information about me while I was on those jobs.  Hell, it will take longer for the investigators longer verify all this  information than very many of the jobs have lasted.  I told myself that I would never go through trying to gather all that information ever again.  When I did the first time for my "Q" clearance, I was only out of high school for less than 10 years.  It took the folks in the Government Personnal Office 18 months to clear me before but it is no telling how long it will take them this time.

TamiyaFan1

[Marlin]

   I think you will find that the questionnaire has changed significantly even in the last 5 years but certainly since 1988. Approval time fluctuates I have gotten it several times and it has taken 6 months to 2 years. Yes it does take much longer for a job shopper than it does for someone with only a couple of jobs and residences in the previous ten years.

Good luck, the good record keeping will probably pay off.

[SloGlo]

SloGo,

I have already spoke to one lawyer, and was able to show him the paperwork that the utility had on me and after reviewing the emails, he told me that I was not stern enough in my text in telling this person to stop using my utility email address.  He more or less told me that it apparently appeared to the utility that I was asking here to send the pictures.  It was like he said that my conversation appeared liked I was enjoying giving the person money just so I could get more pictures.  Any advice about other avenues that a lawyer may need to be contacted to help my current situation would be greatly appreciated!!  Thanks!!

TamiyaFan1

knot bean a lawyer oar even like playing won (accept wit young ladies wit large .... eyes) aye have liitle too offer. butt, if eye where too talk wit a lawyer re this, it wood bee a labor lawyer in a big freakking firm.

[TamiyaFan1]

All,

Thanks for all the replies but there hasn't been any concrete comments or recommendations about how I would go about "getting back in" after this unfavorable access termination.  Is there a time period after which other utilities would consider my application for UAA after this incident?  Or do I need to just work on sponging this one incident to try and lessen to suspension period?  I really need to try and get back into nuclear as my current employment is not really paying all my bills.  I have a huge mountain of credit card debt that all I have been doing is paying the minimum each month and that is doing is keeping those wolves away from the door at the mean time.  Any advise would be appreciated!!  Thanks!!

Best Regards,
TamiyaFan1

[Rennhack]

Thanks for all the replies but there hasn't been any concrete comments or recommendations about how I would go about "getting back in" after this unfavorable access termination.  Is there a time period after which other utilities would consider my application for UAA after this incident?  Or do I need to just work on sponging this one incident to try and lessen to suspension period?

Our Subject Matter Expert no longer visits the site.  There are other posts that he answered that you can read for an answer.

[Ksheed]

1. Don't ever use a work email for personal reasons. (Hindsight, but should have been a given for an experienced nukeworker) Hopefully future people heed this advice.


2. The formal appeal process is the only recourse you have to reverse or lighten the suspension.


3. Trying to gain access at another site is a waste of your time and only shows up as a denial on your record.


4. The original sight where you lost access is your best avenue to attempt to regain access. However it will be very difficult.


5. There are many nukeworkers out there these days without a suspension hanging over them, so you'd have to be a guy/gal with a very special skill set and extremely good at it to get someone to push for a reinstatement for you.


6. I have found that some sites have gone so far as to take the stance that they are not re-mediators. If your record is not squeaky clean, they don't want to waste their resources trying to get you vetted and approved for UAA.


7. Keep in mind the number of plants closing down and what that does to the labor market for nuclear plants. This is effecting both in-house and contract jobs.


Basically, your looking at a near impossible feat these days. I have seen it down once or twice in the past, but that was 6 years or more ago and the people I'm aware of had an in-house person at the plant that was pushing for the reinstatement.  Not sure what your trade is but dirt-burners have shutdowns too.

[TamiyaFan1]

ksheed12,

Very, very sound advise, however going back through the utility is not an option.  The only chance for an appeal was exhausted when I sent in a letter of explanation just days after the clearance was pulled and the suspension was leveed.  I spoke (via email) with a person in the security office and she reminded me that I would not be allowed to re-apply to this utility for the full five year suspension.  I told her about the two "turn backs" that I had already experienced from a couple of other utilities and she went one step further and checked PADS for me.  She told me that even though I had been turned away for work at a couple of places, she told me that neither of them had registered these attempts as denials in PADS.  I am of the opinion that these two turn-backs were too soon after the original suspension.  Because I had a regular employee of one of utilities to tell me that his utility stipulates that after a suspension, I have to be "out" at least a year before they will even consider me.  He did tell me to come on back to the next annual outage and they would put me to work.  I haven't made an additional attempt to go back because I have took employment locally because my family needed to eat and I was going broke faster than I am now, charging up credit cards for motel and other travel expenses.  A two-day "checking-in" paycheck doesn't go very far paying off those credit cards and supporting a household back home.  I have toyed with the idea of attempting to go to some of the spring/fall outages but I will have to basically give up on the semi-stable gig that I have here at home, but I am scared that nothing but failure awaits me back out on the road.  Any additional comments or thoughts in light of this new information are still welcome.   Thanks!

Best Regards,
TamiyaFan1

[TVA]

You won't get it back in the first year or so.