A longtime employee of the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has filed a lawsuit under the Americans With Disabilities Act against facility management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS).
The case was filed last week in the Second Judicial Circuit of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas by Richard Lusby, who started working at Savannah River in 1991. The Aiken County man claims he was moved to a lower-paying job nearly eight years ago after missing work while being treated for cancer. Lusby also alleges SRNS repeatedly turned him down for better job openings after he was effectively demoted.
Lusby is seeking an unspecified amount of lost wages and punitive damages. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions has 35 days to answer the complaint.
Lusby was diagnosed in 2009 with large cell, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to his complaint, which says the disease he says was likely work-related. He subsequently missed five months of work in 2009 and 2010 due to the cancer treatment. Prior to medical leave, Lusby was a first line manager within the SRNS Radiation Protection Department.
Lusby said he was replaced in fall 2012, during what Fluor-led SRNS called a “budget crisis,” by a less senior employee. Lusby’s replacement job paid $20,000 less annually, the lawsuit says.
In 2013, Lusby pursued an administrative “employee concern” case claiming disparate treatment in the removal from the higher-paying job. In the years after filing this action, he said SRNS retaliated by rejecting him for other higher-paying jobs for which he was qualified.
Others affected by the 2012 corporate belt-tightening were moved into comparable positions, Lusby said. Over the years, he applied for 14 better jobs and was turned down, the complaint says. In 2015, a hiring manager reportedly told Lusby he would never be allowed to return to the Radiation Protection Department.
