Hercules employees, unaware of a hidden tape recorder, complained about feeling pressured to forgo repair and quality-control procedures to complete rocket motors on time and within budget.
Asked how frequently he is told to "look the other way," a quality-control inspector answered: "We're invited quite often to go take a break, you know, just come on back in a couple hours."In a separate discussion, a manufacturing specialist complained: "Budget's being met 'cause nobody's following (expletive deleted) procedures."
Transcripts of the conversations, recorded between October 1994 and January 1995, have been filed in Katherine Colunga's fraud lawsuit against the firm.
Hercules sold its missile production unit to Alliant Techsystems in 1995.
Colunga, a former Hercules inspector, was dismissed in 1987 after raising questions about quality-control inspections, and in 1989 he sued under the federal False Claims Act, which allows citizens to sue contractors on behalf of the government.
The 14 employees each were recorded as they spoke to P. Robert Pratt, 41, Salt Lake City, who was a supervisory employee in Hercules' shipping department. Pratt had been demoted shortly before the recordings were made and was fired in October 1995.
Lon Packard, Colunga's attorney, obtained transcripts and sought permission from U.S. Magistrate Ronald Boyce in June to submit them.
Colunga's suit contends Hercules ran a "grossly compromised" quality-assurance program for nine missile systems between October 1981 and April 1992. A trial in the case is scheduled for October.
The workers' comments bolster Colunga's portrayal of "significant wrongdoing" at Hercules, providing evidence workers routinely lie, cheat and fail to follow procedures while feeling intimidated by management, Packard told Boyce in court documents.
In one excerpt, a supervisor said, "This company would have never made it through the (expletive deleted) '80s. They wouldn't have made it through the '70s if (expletive deleted) people hadn't cheated."
The transcripts do not explain the circumstances under which the former employee made the recordings.
A transcript of the deposition was filed in Salt Lake City this week.
Packard filed the transcripts of the employees' conversation in Colunga's case to buttress claims about defective manufacturing and inspection records, called M&IRs. The records are kept during the construction of each rocket motor.
Hercules is seeking the dismissal of the M&IR-related claims, arguing the U.S. government was aware the reports were not perfect.