Court Agrees CHPRC Improperly Solicited Babcock Services Employees
Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
8/1/2014
Babcock Services has scored a win in its legal battle with Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., though the company’s lawsuit has yet to be fully resolved. Last week, a Washington state judge granted Babcock Services’ motion for partial summary judgment on the company’s claim that CHPRC had improperly solicited Babcock Services employees in violation of a contract. As a result, a jury will only have to decide on appropriate damages for that claim when Babcock Services’ suit goes to trial, scheduled for this fall. “Babcock Services is pleased that the judge has found that CHPRC solicited employees from us in violation of the subcontract agreement. We believe that the role of small businesses in government contracting is important, and the retention of our employees is vital if we are to continue to be an added value contractor,” Babcock Services Executive Vice President Phil Gallagher said this week. CHPRC spokeswoman Dee Millkin said, “CHPRC respects the judicial process and we are reviewing the decision for a path forward.”
Babcock Services filed its lawsuit against CHPRC, for which it served as a subcontractor, last summer. At issue was CHPRC’s plan to self-perform a significant amount of work that had been done by subcontractors as it moved into the next five-year phase of its contract at Hanford, and that in filling the new positions created, CHPRC would give hiring preference to workers who had been performing those jobs for subcontractors. CHPRC said at the time that it was moving to self-perform more work to help generate cost savings. Babcock Services charged in its suit, though, that CHPRC had violated its subcontract by soliciting its employees against its objections.
Babcock Services also charged in its suit that by ending its contract early, CHPRC had violated terms initially agreed to in 2008. CHPRC’s latest five-year extension of its contract with DOE runs out in 2018, but according to Babcock Services’ suit, the contract cannot be terminated by CHPRC unilaterally before CHPRC’s contract ends, instead such a move has to be either agreed to by Babcock or directed by DOE.
