Hanford subcontractor URS Energy & Construction agreed to settle a whistleblower lawsuit brought by former employee Walter Tamosaitis for $4.1 million Wednesday. Tamosaitis, the former research and technology manager for the Waste Treatment Plant, was removed from the project in July 2010 shortly after he said he raised concerns about the future safe and efficient operation of the plant under construction. He continued to be employed by URS, but had no meaningful work for 15 months and was laid off in 2013, said his attorney, Jack Sheridan.
The settlement comes almost a year before the case was set for jury trial in Eastern Washington District U.S. Court. “This settlement sends a message to whistleblowers everywhere that integrity and truth are worth fighting for and that you can win if you don’t give up,” Sheridan said. AECOM, which acquired URS in 2014, said it reached resolution in the case “to avoid the cost and distraction of litigation relating to events that occurred over five years ago. The company strongly disagrees that it retaliated against him in any manner.”
Tamosaitis said he was pleased that his actions as a whistleblower led to a look at the safety culture not only at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, but at environmental management projects across the DOE complex. His case against URS also led to a potential legal precedent favoring whistleblowers, he said. A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling extended potential liability to subcontractors who sanction retaliation by prime contractors, Sheridan said. . Bechtel National, the prime contractor on the vitrification plant project, has strongly denied retaliation against Tamosaitis and a separate lawsuit against Bechtel was dismissed.
In other legal action, a Department of Labor investigation has concluded that the whistleblower activities of a former Hanford Waste Treatment Plant millwright contributed to a decision to lay him off in 2011. “Evidence indicates that complainant was scrutinized and treated more harshly than other employees,” according to the Department of Labor findings. It issued a preliminary order requiring Bechtel National to pay Walter Ford $25,000 plus back pay at $4,588.50 per month, minus interim earnings, from Nov. 18, 2011, through March 2012.
Ford was laid off in the first round of layoffs when Bechtel stopped construction on key parts of the plant over technical concerns. The Department of Labor found that if Ford had not lost his job in the first round of layoffs, he would have been laid off in the next few months. It did not order Bechtel to reinstate him, as Ford had requested. Bechtel and Ford each have 30 days to file an objection to the Department of Labor findings and request a hearing before an administrative law judge. “Bechtel disagrees with the Department of Labor’s initial finding. We are confident that a full review of the evidence will demonstrate there has been no retaliation,” Bechtel said in a statement Monday.
