4000 Jobs, Company Future In Jeopardy
EL PASO, TX. – The jobs of nearly 4000 Sun City residents and the future of their employer is in jeopardy.
El Paso’s National Center for Employment of the Disabled (NCED) has until Thursday to submit its response to the committee in Washington DC that recently found the company in violation of the Javits-Wagner-O’Day act for disabled workers.
NCED has made more than $275 million from the military for work on contracts awarded by the Javits-Wagner-O’Day (JWOD) program, however that revenue source looks to be in serious danger after a federal committee reportedly found the company to be in severe violation of the JWOD act.
The act requires that 75% percent of the work on those contracts be done by the disabled. The committee recommended pulling the contracts after it found NCED’s number to be only 7.8%.
According to Steve Schwalb, the committee could take a variety of steps after reviewing that report, “We could choose to take no action, because we would be persuaded everything is appropriate…we could follow through on the staff recommendation to remove NCED from the program or we could reallocate some of the work away from NCED, letting them remain in the program.”
Of the number of disabled workers in NCED’s program, Mr. Schwalb said, “The disparity of the inconsistency is wider than we’ve seen in my recollection … this is the widest disparity I’ve seen since I’ve been on the committee.”
ABC-7 contacted NCED officials numerous times Wednesday, but they refused to appear on camera, stating they reserved the right to comment at a later date.
