Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
1/22/2016

Former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employee Anthony Rivera on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking $5 million in damages for alleged wrongful termination. Rivera is suing LLNL managing contractor Lawrence Livermore National Security “for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy,” against Department of Energy (DOE) officials Kimberly Lebak and Shiwali Patel “for violation of First Amendment freedom of speech,” and against the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the DOE’s Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) “for violation of due process,” according to the suit filed in the California Northern District. Lebak was the NNSA site manager at the lab in 2013 and Patel was the OHA investigator Rivera alleges refused to properly investigate his claims.

Rivera, a 29-year engineering employee at the lab, said he was fired in 2013 after disclosing safety hazards at the High Explosives Applications Facility where he worked for 16 years. He filed a complaint with Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz last July under federal whistleblower protection provisions, requesting either reinstatement to his previous position or a new OHA investigation into the dismissal. The OHA previously dismissed a complaint he filed in 2014 on the matter, and in 2015 denied his appeal of the dismissal, in which Rivera alleged the OHA investigator had not conducted a comprehensive review of his claims.

OHA’s March 2015 decision on Rivera’s appeal noted that although he alleged employment termination after reporting “fraud, gross mismanagement, gross waste of funds, and abuse of authority,” he was actually fired for a “pattern of insubordination and disobedience towards his supervisors’ instructions, repeatedly failing to perform his duties as instructed, failing to meet with his supervisors, and disrupting others’ work.”

The decision document also highlighted Rivera’s past disputes with management, including a racial discrimination complaint he filed in 2011 and conflicts regarding his annual performance reviews, alleged conduct towards supervisors, and his receipt of employee disciplines, which included a letter of warning and five-day suspension.

In addition to the $5 million, Rivera is also seeking court orders to reform DOE practices and the OHA’s whistleblower protection operations. Lawrence Livermore spokeswoman Lynda Seaver said in a statement that Rivera’s complaints “are baseless, and have been adjudicated by several outside agencies. As a result his complaints were dismissed, and his many appeal attempts have been unsuccessful to date.”

“The Lab vigorously enforces its policy prohibiting management retaliation against employees who raise bona fide safety or other important concerns,” Seaver said. “Mr. Rivera’s retaliation claim was rejected by the DOE Office of Hearings and Appeals, and we are confident that it will ultimately be rejected in court as well.”

Rivera’s attorney, Anthony Bothwell, could not be reached for comment.