Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
10/2/2015
A former employee at the Y-12 National Security Complex filed a legal complaint last Friday against former Y-12 managing contractor BWX Technologies (BWXT) alleging he was unlawfully fired as retaliation for reporting the company’s violations of federal regulations to the Department of Energy (DOE).
Michael Doughty, a Y-12 employee since 2008, was made the Human Reliability Program (HRP) management official in 2012, tasked with ensuring employees accessing certain facilities and materials “meet the highest standards of reliability as well as physical and mental suitability,” according to a complaint letter filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, Tenn. Following the July 2012 incident in which three anti-nuclear activists breached the Y-12 facility, “the Security Police Officers and BWXT were moved under the same contract making the HRP part of the Security section,” the letter says.
Upon accepting his position, Doughty began to modify BWXT policies and procedures, specifically with the company’s Contract Security Management Group, to ensure compliance with the DOE’s HRP regulations through its Federal Oversight Team. According to the complaint, “an unhealthy relationship began to form” between Doughty and the Contract Security Management Group, “which wanted to control any changes to the program.”
While Doughty was on vacation in June 2013, a colleague acting for him classified an incident in which a BWXT police officer allowed a person without a security badge to enter the facility as an administrative rather than security concern, the complaint says, giving the Contractor Security Management Group power to investigate the incident before reporting it to the DOE’s Federal Oversight Team. Doughty reported this situation to the federal team, the document says, and the following month a meeting between the Contractor Security Management Group, the Federal Oversight Team, and Doughty clarified the roles of the HRP management official.
Doughty was then placed on administrative leave shortly after an official on the federal team retired. Amid growing tensions between the contractor and federal groups, Doughty was terminated from his position in early September in a move the complaint says violated the Energy Reorganization Act. The document says Doughty “had never received a single written disciplinary report or corrective action report” and that BWXT – Babcock & Wilcox at the time – ignored federal investigation procedures to determine his suitability for employment by conducting its own internal investigation. According to the complaint, Doughty is requesting “back pay, front pay, pre- and post-judgment interest, and other equitable relief,” as well as “compensatory damages in an amount to be proven at trial.”
Doughty’s attorney, Brian Lawler, said by telephone that BWXT will now be served with the complaint and will be given time to respond, after which the lawsuit will move forward. “I’m confident that we have a good case,” Lawler said. “It’s pretty clear that Mr. Doughty was fired as a result of his protected whistleblowing activities.” A BWXT spokesperson declined to comment.
