A lawsuit over mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee is apparently being revived after plaintiffs and the defendant prime contractor failed to agree on final details of a settlement proposal put forward in June.
After agreeing June 8 to a draft settlement agreement from mediator Chad Hatmaker, the parties have been unable to reach consensus on the final settlement paperwork, according to a status report filed Sept. 15 by attorneys for the University of Tennessee-Battelle, the joint venture managing the lab. The filing was made with U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley in Knoxville.
On July 1, Atchley, working with a federal magistrate judge, issued a set of deadlines “to facilitate the settlement,” in the case brought by six lab employees opposed to the vaccination requirement, against laboratory manager UT-Battelle. The most recent deadline was Thursday Sept. 15.
“However, despite their efforts, it appears that there has not been a meeting of the minds as to two, substantive terms of settlement,” according to the report filed with the federal district court. “Therefore, there is no agreement as to settlement, and the Parties must move forward with the litigation.”
Recently, the plaintiffs in the case declined to reconvene before the mediator, Hatmaker, according to the filing.
“There are a multitude of factual issues that have yet to be developed in this matter,” according to the filing by attorneys for defendant UT-Battelle. “If Plaintiffs no longer wish to attempt to resolve the issues related to the Mediator’s Proposal, then this matter should proceed to discovery, just like every other employment case does, so that Defendant may be afforded its Constitutional right of due process and be allowed a full opportunity to develop an evidentiary record.”
The case was first filed in October 2021 by the six plaintiffs including Jeffrey and Jessica Bilyeu. The plaintiffs returned to work earlier this year after a federal district judge temporarily enjoined federal agencies from enforcing the vaccination mandate, which includes exemptions for religious and medical reasons.
The DOE has said well over 90% of its direct employees as well as contractors were vaccinated against the illness that has killed more than 1 million Americans. The agency has also largely stopped collecting vaccine data from people who work at and visit DOE nuclear sites.
