A federal judge in South Carolina has dismissed a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by a white former employee of the management contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site.
In a May 27 order, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Anderson, Jr., dismissed the case brought against Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) by plaintiff Christopher Fail. Judge Anderson adopted a February report and recommendations by U.S. Magistrate Judge Shiva Hodges, recommending summary judgment to the defendant.
Fail, who was fired by the Fluor-led joint venture in March 2018, sued the Savannah River Site operator under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 alleging race discrimination and a hostile work environment.
“Plaintiff has failed to show that his workplace was ‘permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and create an abusive working environment,’” the federal district judge said, citing the magistrate judge’s report.
The district judge was also unconvinced by various objections the plaintiff filed to the magistrate’s conclusions. Among other points, the magistrate judge’s report said Fail’s dismissal was endorsed by a termination panel, consisting of mostly white members.
“Plaintiff was fired for several reasons other than complaints of racist comments,” according to the magistrate’s report. “Those reasons include telling multiple employees that another co-worker slashed his tire and accusing his manager and a planner of falsifying documentation,” according to the report.
Fail, a white employee, was first hired by SRNS in June 2015 for a temporary job. By the end of the year he took a permanent position as a maintenance mechanic in the L area, reporting to a supervisor who is black. There was friction between the plaintiff and his supervisor, which Fail reported to the front-line manager on various occasions in 2016.
Fail alleges many of his non-white co-workers repeated hostile racial and politically-tinged comments and often refused to work with him. The magistrate’s report said while there were racial statements by other employees, it was typically not directed at the plaintiff.
Fail initially filed suit in state court in fall 2019, before the defendant filed a motion to move the case into federal court.
