More Mediation in Lab Age Discrimination Case Scheduled for Next Week
NS&D Monitor
5/1/2015
Another round of mediation is scheduled next week between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and lawyers for 130 laid off employees, but this time, the mediator will be different. The two sides have brought in mediator Jeff Ross to preside over the May 7 session after two days of talks mediated by David Rotman earlier this month failed to reach a resolution. Gary Gwilliam, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he was hopeful the change in mediators would bring about a settlement, but he added that if a deal isn’t reached, a trial would not likely take place until early next year. In a statement, LLNL spokeswoman Lynda Seaver said: “It is difficult to predict whether this will lead to a settlement, but we look forward to continued discussion.”
What would be the third trial in the case is currently scheduled for October. That trial is currently set to deal with the age discrimination claims by the employees, but Gwilliam has pushed to include the breach of contract issue as well, and lawyers would need more time to prepare for that trial if its scope was expanded. 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 in a second trial last year. The five employees were part of a group of 130 workers suing the lab over the 2008 layoff of a total of 440 lab employees. A third trial involving a new subset of the employees—10 scientists and engineers that claim they were the victims of age discrimination and breach of contract—has been delayed until at least October.
