LAB WINS AGE DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT
NS&D Monitor
1/10/2014
An Alameda County (Calif.) jury has ruled against five former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employees that accused the lab of age discrimination in connection with a massive layoff in 2008. The five employees won a $2.7 wrongful termination verdict earlier last year, but in a separate trial focusing on age discrimination, a jury found Dec. 20 that the lab did not skew the layoffs toward older employees, as lawyers for the plaintiffs had argued. The five former employees are part of a group of 130 laid off employees suing the lab over the 2008 layoff of 440 lab workers. Livermore spokeswoman Lynda Seaver said the lab is “gratified that the jury recognized that Lab managers acted in good faith and in compliance with established Lab policies in selecting for layoff in 2008, and did not discriminate based on age of the five former employees whose claims were heard in this trial. We appreciate the jury’s substantial efforts over these past two months and thank them for their service.”
A hearing has been scheduled for Feb. 13 to discuss how to proceed with the cases of the 125 remaining workers. Gary Gwilliam, a lawyer for the employees, said he was disappointed by the decision, but planned on moving forward with the rest of the cases. “The fact that we didn’t win the second part doesn’t mean we lost. We didn’t win everything we wanted. The big issue is where we go with the rest of the cases,” he said. He said a decision hasn’t been made on how to proceed, but he suggested the plaintiffs could move forward with a trial involving the scientists at the lab, which he said were on the older side and their layoffs clearly demonstrated age discrimination.
Gwilliam said the high average age at the lab made it difficult to prove age discrimination, and he lamented the fact that he was limited to proving age discrimination in favor of those under 40 years old. He said the discrimination took place at higher ages, and the average age of his clients was 54. “There weren’t too many employees under 40,” he said. “Even the average age of the flex term employees was 41.”
