ML20210Q155

Summary of 970731 Meeting W/Nneco Re Potential Chilling Effect of Util 970723 Disciplinary Actions Against 22 Employees as Result of Performance While Associated W/Plant Training Dept.W/List of Attendees & Transcript of Meeting

ML20210Q155
Person / Time
Site:	Millstone
Issue date:	08/07/1997
From:	Stephen Dembek NRC (Affiliation Not Assigned)
To:	NRC (Affiliation Not Assigned)
Shared Package
ML20210Q161	List: ML20210Q155 ML20210Q162
References
NUDOCS 9708280172
Download: ML20210Q155 (7)

Text

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LICENSEE:

Northe st Nucle:r En:rgy Comp:ny (NNECO)

FACILITIES:

Mill:tona Nucle:r Power Station, Units 1,2, cnd 3

SUMMARY

OF JULY 31,1997, MEETING WITH NNECO TO DISCUSS THE POTENTIAL CHILLING EFFECT CAUSED BY RECENT LilSCIPLINARY ACTIONS On July 31,1997, the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRP). the Director of NRR's Special Projects Office (SPO) and his staff, the Director of the OiTice of Enforcement, and representatives of the Office of the General Counsel met with NNECO representatives in a publicly observed meeting. The meeting was requested by the NRC staff to address the potential chilling effect of NNECO's July 23,1997, disciplinary actions against-22 employees as a result of their performance while associated with the Millstone Training Department.

The NRC staff began the meeting by stating that establishing a workplace environment where employees feel free to raise safety concerns to their management and to the NRC without fear of retaliation is important to the NRC. The NRC staff requested that the licensee discuss the actions taken or planned to be taken to address the possibility of these disciplinary actions creating a chilling effect with the work force.

NNECO's President and Chief Executive Officer discussed the significant actions completed and planned to be taken to address the possibility of a chilling effect The completed and planned actions'are listed in NNECO's har.dout (enclosed). provides a list of the meeting participants. Enclosure 2 provides the handout used by NNECO during its presentation. Enclosure 3 provides the transcript of the meeting.

Stephen Dembek, Project Manager Special Projects Office - Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket Nos. 50-245, 50-336, and 50-423 1

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Enclosures:

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i Northeast Utilities Briefing for U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission SAFETY-CONSClOUS WORK ENVIRONMENT July 31,1997 11 tat Potential chilling effect created by the disciplinary actions taken on twenty-two employees.

Backaround On July 23, 1997, twenty two Northeast Nuclear Energy Company (NNECO) employees were disciplined as a result of unacceptable performance while associated with the Millstone Training Department. Approximately two-thirds held management or supervisory positions at the time of the performance issues, and one-third were in non-supervisory positions.

The disciplinary actions were taken for past performance deficiencies and were not directly relatt.d to the Millstone training stand down conducted on June 27,1997.

Attached are two tables that describe the actions taken and/or planned to address the potential chilling effect.

Table 1 identifies communications / actions taken by NNECO. The objective was to communicate actions taken, respond to questions, and to identify concerns or issues requiring follow-up.

Table 2 identifies future planned actions to be taken by NNECO.

NNECO does not consider the information contained in the attached Tables as commitments.

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Table 1 Completed Actions Table 1 identifies actions taken by NNECO to detect a chilling effect. The first column identifies the specac schon and columns 2, 3,4, and 5 identify the affected populaton.

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4 Specific Action Site Oversight Training Units

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I Completed Actions Managernent issued Special Edition of"To The Point

• to Millstone employees in parallel with affected employees being informed of -

X X

X X

discipline on July 23.

y The President & CEO-Nuclear held an Employee Meeting in parallel I

with affected employees being informed of discipline on July 23.

X X

X X

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Recovery Off.cer-Nuclear Engineering & Support and the Director of Trainmg, held an all-hands meeting with Training Department personnel in the aftemoon of July 23.

X The VP-Nuclear Oversight met with Nuclear Oversight personnel in the aftemoon of July 23 to announce the actions taken and its immediate impact on Oversight.

X

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Recovery Officer-Nuclear Engineering & Support and the Director of Training held a second all-hands meeting with Training Depaiinient f

persornel on July 24 for personnel who were unable to attend the X

earlier meeting and for anyone who had questions regarding the discipline.

The VP-Unit 3 held a meeting on July 24 with Unit 3 managers and first line supervisors to discuss the training disciplinary actions and X

address any questions.

The Training Director and Manager of Operator Training held a i

meeting on July 25 with Training managers and supervisors to L

explain the seriousness of the examples of procedure non-

-X compliance.

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TABLE 1 Completed Actions (cont'd.)

Specific Action Site Oversight Training Units 4

Completed Actions The President & CEO-Nuclear, and the VP-Nuclear Oversight met with the Oversight organization on July 24 to explain the discipline. _

assure the employees that their efforts - even if critical of the Company -would contmoe to be.well received and acted upon by X'

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management and address personnel questions.

The Director of Training held a third all-hands meeting with Training Depaiunent personnel on July 28 to address remaining questions and rumors about the discipline. The discussion focused on specific examples of what is not acceptable performance relative to X

regulatory compliance.

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The VP-Oversight met again with Nuclect Oversight Directors and X

Managers to further discuss the actions on July 28.

The Recovery Officer-Unit 2 held a meeting on July 29 with Unit 2 managers and first line supervisors to discuss the training disciplinary X

actions and address any questions.-

l The President & CEO-Nuclear held a meeting on July 29 with Unit 1 personnel to discuss the training disciplinary actions and address any X

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questions.

This issue was discussed with the Millstone Advisory Council on July 30.

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Table 2 Planned Actions 1.

Identify Employee Concerns:

Management continues to seek input.

ECP will solicit feedback from the workforce through the ECP Peer P.epresentatives to help focus their investigation to detect the presence of a chilling effect. ECP's initial focus will be on the Training and Oversight organizations.

. The dmployee Concerns Oversight Panel (ECOP) will review the environment to ascertain presence of a chilling effect.

II.

Address Specific Issues:

Opportunity for disciplined employees to present additional information.

Independently assess basis for discipline.

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Reinforce and Communicate Manrgement Principles and Expectations:

Continue to reinforce and encourage the need to maintain a questioning attitude by the entire workforce and management willingness to act on identified problems.

Communicate to employees that management is not engaging in historical reviews for disciplinary actions, rather has to respond appropriately to significant issues discovered during reviews of events.

Management / supervisory personnel will be advised to be attentive to subtle changes in personnel behavior which may be indicative of a chilling effect.

Continue to emphasize CEO Expectations regarding procedure adherence and regulatory compliance in everyday activities.

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Conduct Lessons Learned l

Review effectiveness of initial communications.

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Communicati i

Update stakeholders on a routine basis (e.g., Employees, Public, NRC

-e Restart Assessment Panel) regarding the safety-conscious work environment at Millstone.

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