The Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor is expected to argue next month that race did not factor into its unwillingness to rehire a laid-off employee who sued the company over her termination.
A court hearing for Adrienne Saulsberry’s lawsuit against her former employer, Savannah River Remediation (SRR), is scheduled for June 25 in Aiken, S.C., before U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs, according to a May 23 filing.
Both parties will argue their position on March recommendations from Magistrate Judge Paige Gossett. In the report, Gossett partially supported Saulsberry’s assertion in her August 2016 lawsuit that race played a role in her termination and failure to secure subsequent employment with SRR. Saulsberry is African-American.
Saulsberry began working at the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina in 1990, joining Savannah River Remediation as a radiological first line manager in 2008. Saulsberry said she was terminated in September 2013 after confirming to SRR management that a white employee had made racially motivated comments. She said the employee was a friend of one of her superiors, who had a hand in her job loss.
She is seeking reinstatement, back pay, and payment of her legal fees by SRR.
Providing an outside opinion in a District Court lawsuit is among the responsibilities of a magistrate judge. In Gossett’s March 28 report, she wrote that there is no proof Saulsberry’s termination was racially motivated since it was part of a larger reduction in workforce in which SRR used evaluation scores to determine who would remain employed.
However, Gossett said, based on experience and qualifications, Saulsberry was more deserving of either of the two first-line manager positions she applied for in May 2014, but did not get. The two white employees who got the jobs were less skilled and qualified, according to Gossett: “The evidence could reasonably support an inference that white former employees were treated more favorably than Saulsberry in connection with the rehiring preference.”
