BREMERTON -- An employee recently fired at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard says she was investigated after raising alarm over working conditions there during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In mid-March, Megan Mayo advocated hazard pay and complained to management that not enough social distancing and other measures were being implemented at the shipyard, the largest such facility in the nation. She even made a sweatshirt that cited CDC statistics on one side and a quote from the shipyard's commander, Capt. Dianna Wolfson, about putting "shipyard before self."

"I wanted to show that despite the alarming statistics that we still would show up and do our jobs because our loyalty to the mission and the ideal that a lot of us embody each day of ... 'shipyard ahead of self,'" she said.

The shipyard declined to comment on the investigation and termination.

"There are a number of factors that go into any personnel action, however, due to federal privacy laws, we are unable to provide information on personnel matters," said Matt Bailey, a shipyard spokesman.

Officially Mayo, a marine machinery mechanic helper, was walked out of the shipyard gates at the end of March for "conduct unbecoming of a federal employee," according to her termination paperwork, shared with the Kitsap Sun.

While the shipyard can't comment, Mayo believes her offense was to speak up. After wearing the sweatshirt to work March 24, she said there were complaints within three hours of being on the job. So she turned it inside out.

Mayo admitted she has been one to speak out within her employment, to include a previous job in nursing home administration, and on other matters at the shipyard. But she said she was not insubordinate. A wife of a Navy veteran who also works at the shipyard, she said she enjoyed her job and wants the opportunity to go back to work.

Mayo is appealing the case and the Navy's Office of Special Counsel is investigating.

"I loved my job and it is sad I lost that and the people I spent every day with," she said. "It is like losing family."

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Mayo, in her probationary period of employment, had advocated for hazard pay both on social media and in letters to leadership, her union and Rep. Derek Kilmer. She said her comments on the shipyard's own Facebook page were deleted.

In her letter to Rep. Kilmer, which she posted to Facebook, she said workers "shouldn't have to resign ourselves to contracting COVID-19."

"I beg of you to please work with PSNS leaders, the union, city leaders, our governor, fellow representatives as well as the President to find a way to protect us," she wrote.

In the time since, Kilmer has indeed advocated both for hazard pay for shipyard workers and enhanced personal protective gear for them.

At the start of the outbreak, the shipyard sent home with pay workers over 60, those vulnerable to coronavirus and those caring for those vulnerable in mid-March. Its leadership staggered shifts and allowed more than 2,000 of its 14,300-person workforce to work from home. It also started manufacturing hand sanitizer and cloth masks among other measures aimed to keep the virus from spreading.

As those measures have been rolled in recent weeks, Mayo contended at the onset the shipyard could have curtailed operations as it does at the holidays, to weather at least the worst of the spread, or implemented mandatory PPE be worn like what Kilmer is now calling for.

It's unknown how many shipyard workers contracted COVID-19 because the Pentagon banned individual commands from reporting cases. But before it had been disallowed, the shipyard had reported one case of a worker who got coronavirus while on leave, as did the USS Carl Vinson, which was in dry dock at the shipyard.

On March 24, she wore the hoodie to work. In retrospect, Mayo said it should have read more accurately Capt. Wolfson's quote from her change of command ceremony, "shipyard ahead of self." Earlier CDC statistics she cited on the sweatshirt warned of the percentage of those 20-44 -- still working at the shipyard -- who would need hospitalization.

"It is meant to serve as a reminder of how we choose each day to put our jobs, the yard, and national security before our own interests," she said in her timeline of the firing. "Within 3 hours my supervisor receives a call from (a supervisor and) informs me the shop has requested I change after complaints ... I elect to quickly turn it inside out so I can go to my job site to complete work."

Two days later with her union representative present by phone, Mayo said she was interviewed by two investigators. They had photos of the sweatshirt, presumably taken from her Facebook page.

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It still puzzles Mayo why they focused on the sweatshirt.

"It wasn't offensive. It wasn't explicit. No nudity. No weapons. Things I would see daily at the yard," she said.

The shipyard doesn't have a dress code. It depends on where they work inside the sprawling facility on Sinclair Inlet, Bailey said.

"PSNS & IMF strives to provide a safe, respectful and inclusive environment where our employees can reach their full potential," he said. "Ensuring that our employees dress in a manner that respects every individual is a part of that."

On March 31 while working on a vessel at the shipyard, she was summoned for a meeting with the investigators. They handed her a termination letter and she was escorted off the shipyard.

Bailey said it's not the shipyard's policy to terminate employees who become vocal over workplace safety.

"All PSNS & IMF employees have the right to present concerns through proper channels," he said. "It is PSNS & IMF’s policy to take care of its people through comprehensive, effective and continuous safety and health programs. There are also numerous means in which our workforce can alert the command to issues regarding workplace safety. PSNS & IMF relies upon suggested improvements from our workforce as an important tool to ensure continuous safety."

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Josh Farley is the military reporter at the Kitsap Sun. He can be reached at josh.farley@kitsapsun.com.