Frustrations are running high as people who have employment offers from Electric Boat can't start work because federal background check investigations are backlogged.
"It's frustrating for us right now, you know. You think you got a job and then only to be told we're waiting for your clearance," said Ken DelaCruz, president of the Metal Trades Council AFL-CIO. It's the union that represents most of the shipyard workers at EB.
DelaCruz said he's been getting many frustrated phone calls from people offered employment at Electric Boat who can't earn a paycheck because of the backlogged system.
"Folks saying, 'Hey, what's up? The company gave me an offer to start and is this true that they're having problems with security clearance?'"
About 165 would-be EB employees are waiting for that security clearance, according to Dan Barrett, a spokesperson for EB.
"This means we haven’t been able to bring onto the job as many people as we would like as quickly as we would like. Longer times also affect prospective employees, who understandably may look for other jobs rather than wait out the clearance period," Barrett said in an email to NBC Connecticut.
Some people have been waiting upward of a year for their security clearance, according to DelaCruz.
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The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, who conducts the background checks, said it's not supposed to take that long.
For new employees getting first-time clearance, the investigation alone for secret clearance should take about 40 days, according to Sam Schumach, the press secretary for OPM. For those needing top-secret clearance, the process should take about 80 days.
According to Schumach, the backlog started in 2014 because OPM let a contract expire, which meant they lost several background investigators. OPM is now working on hiring more background investigators to speed up the process, he said.
"(Hopefully) they can come to terms with us because we have nuclear submarines to build here and they don't get built by themselves," DelaCruz said.
EB already hired 1,400 employees this year and plans to hire several more, according to Barrett. He said the company is working aggressively to lower the time it takes to make candidates offers, hoping that offsets the time needed for the clearance process.
