THIRD AGE DISCRIMINATION TRIAL MOVES FORWARD
NS&D Monitor
3/21/2014
An age discrimination lawsuit involving ten former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employees is moving forward in a Northern California court. The trial is the third involving a group of 130 employees that were laid off from the lab in 2008, and involves scientists and engineers from the lab that say they were the victims of age discrimination as part of the layoff. The trial is currently scheduled to take place in Alameda County Superior Court Jan. 26, 2015. An Alameda County jury found in favor of a group of five former employees in a breach of contract case in early 2013, awarding the former employees $2.7 million, but a separate jury rejected the same employees’ claims of age discrimination in connection to their layoffs earlier this year. The five employees are from the same group of 130 laid off employees that has produced the current 10 scientists and engineers heading to trial. “The initial age discrimination was tossed out only for the first five,” said Randy Strauss, a lawyer with Oakland-based Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli & Brewer who represents the laid off workers. “It’s fair game for everyone else.”
Strauss noted that the workers’ defeat earlier this year should not impact the current group of employees, who all came from the lab’s 200 series of engineers, scientists and physicists rather than the support jobs that the first five plaintiffs performed. He said comments from defense lawyers during the second trial revealed that the engineers, scientists and physicists were subject to age discrimination, with about a 1 in a million chance the employees would have been selected for the layoff without age discrimination. “They said when you separate out the 200s there is a statistical disparity,” Strauss said. “We’re fine with that and we agree with that and we’ll present that.”
Scientists/Engineers Average 55 Years Old
The 10 scientists and engineers worked in a wide variety of areas in the lab and were an average of 55 years old when the layoffs occurred. Six came from the lab’s Science and Technology Directorate (ages at time of layoff): chemist James Brunk, 56; engineer Alan Gates, 53; computer scientist Jeff Louie, 56; engineer Stephen Mahler, 53; physicist Mike McElfresh, 51; and computer scientist William Tapley, 52. Four others came from the lab’s weapons program (engineer Larry Nattras, 59) and its Global Security Directorate (physicist Ken Sale, 51) as well as its Operations and Business Directorate (engineer Thomas Schmiegel, 60) and Director’s Group (environmental scientist Amitabha Basu, 60).
Lab officials have previously said the 200 series employees were selected for the layoff based on a skills ranking while other employees at the lab were supposed to be selected based on reverse seniority. In a statement, Livermore spokeswoman Lynda Seaver said: “The laboratory believes it followed its policies and procedures in regard to the layoff. The court already has found the lab did not discriminate with respect to age.” In addition to the age discrimination claim, Strauss said the workers will also argue that the lab did not have reasonable cause to lay them off because they left flex-term workers in their place and improperly grouped the employees.
KNAPP PULLS OUT OF DIRECTOR SEARCH DUE TO HEALTH
NS&D Monitor
3/21/2014
Acting Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Bret Knapp is pulling himself out of the running for the permanent position, citing health reasons. In a March 14 message to employees, Knapp said he had been diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of cancer that is one of the more common forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “While I remain optimistic about a full recovery, I have made the decision to withdraw my application for the LLNL director position,” Knapp said. “It is disappointing for me to do so, but it was the decision made with my family after evaluating my medical situation. … I am hopeful about my journey over the coming months.”
Knapp headed up the weapons program at Los Alamos National Laboratory until he was named acting LLNL director in October after the abrupt resignation of Parney Albright. He said he will continue to fulfill his duties as acting lab director and said he would assist in the transition to a new director. “The search for a permanent Laboratory director is continuing as originally scheduled, and I expect this to come to a successful conclusion shortly,” he said.
