After winning $1.475 million in an initial jury decision and another $295,000 in front pay in a post-trial ruling, a former employee for the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor is seeking nearly $270,000 more in a discrimination suit to cover attorney fees and litigation costs.
In a Feb. 6 request in U.S. District Court for South Carolina, Adrienne Saulsberry’s legal team said federal and local laws permit her to seek attorney fees in her August 2016 lawsuit against Savannah River Remediation (SRR). She is seeking $267,266.95, plus $218.20 for “litigation expenses.”
Saulsberry, who is African-American, worked at the 310-square-mile Department of Energy site for 23 years and was a first-line manager for SRR at the time she was let go in 2013. Her August 2016 lawsuit alleged she was wrongfully included in a DOE-mandated workforce reduction of nearly 500 employees after reporting to SRR management a white co-worker who had made racially insensitive comments. She also claimed SRR refused to hire her for either of two first-line manager jobs the year after her termination and instead gave the jobs to less-qualified white employees.
Savannah River Remediation denied both claims, saying its hiring and workforce reduction processes were nondiscriminatory.
In September, a jury ruled in favor of Saulsberry. District Judge J. Michelle Childs upheld the jury’s $1.475 million award to the former employee.
Then, on Jan. 17, Childs partially ruled in favor of Saulsberry’s Oct. 25 request for equitable relief, awarding her another $295,225.
Savannah River Remediation has not yet responded to Saulsberry’s request for payment of attorney fees. The contractor is a partnership of Amentum (formerly AECOM Management Services), Bechtel National, CH2M, and BWX Technologies. Since its original award ended in June 2017, SRR’s contract has been extended four times, including the 18-month extension signed in April that keeps the company on the job through September 30, 2020. The latest contract is worth $750 million.
