Lowball bidder is hurting those who help veterans

Catherine Rampell

Government offifficials often pay lip service to “supporting our troops.” But some of the people who literally do that vital work have just been badly shortchanged.

For at least the third time in two years, the National Guard Bureau has awarded a contract for military family services to a lowball bidder. For the third time, that bid was based on plans to cut workers’ pay by about a third on average, and in some cases by half. These pay levels are so low that they may not be legal, according to a complaint fifiled Monday with the Labor Department.

And for the third time, these sudden wage cuts have led to mass resignations.

“They’ve devalued not only us but the services we give to military families across the country,” said Kevin McDonnell, a veteran and contract worker whose hourly wage fell from $24.85 to $14.02.

McDonnell is one of about 400 people employed by the military’s Family Assistance Centers. Center workers help families plan budgets and understand health benefifits. They do crisis intervention. And they develop relation- ships with local organizations that offffffffffffer free or discounted services to military families. Most are veterans or close family members of military members.

These are also solid, middle-class jobs. Or they were.

Before a new contractor took over last month, the workers who deal directly with families (“specialists”) made 19 to 25 per hour, depending on location, and their managers (“coordinators”) made $23 to $30. As of March, both make around $ 10 to $16 an hour.

The fifirm was required to offffffffffffer employees the chance to keep their jobs, but workers quit by the dozens. Today, 88 of 417 positions remain vacant, according to a National Guard Bureau spokeswoman. Many who stayed say they are actively looking for new jobs.

“I’m now utilizing some of the services that I send other vets to because I couldn’t make ends meet,” said Frank Ourada, 30. The disabled Marine made $20.08 per hour, and now earns 13.17.

He has applied to a state energy-assistance program and has been visiting a food pantry. So what happened? The company that won the contract, Cognitive Professional Services, set pay rates by looking through the Labor Department occupational directory and choosing another job title, for a more junior position, that might have sounded sorta similar Family Readiness and Support Services Coordinator”). It then offffffffffffered the minimum required for that occupation.

Cognitive did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Arguably, the National Guard Bureau should have seen these problems coming.

Similar bids by other vendors on two previous contracts awarded since 2015 also led to massive wage cuts and resignations. In those cases, the bureau says it specififically told vendors that the lower-wage “Family Readiness and Support Services Coordinator” job title applied. One worker fifiled her own Labor Department complaint in October, also alleging misclassifification.

Despite the fifinancial strain, Ourada — the specialist now having to use food pantries — says this work is his calling, and he hopes to stay as long as he can.

He shudders to think about who might be falling through the cracks today given the number of vacancies around the country.

So should the rest of us.