JUDGE DISMISSES HANFORD LABOR UNION SUIT OVER TERMINATED WRPS EMPLOYEES

The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council appears to have dropped a lawsuit it filed against Washington River Protection Solutions over what the union had alleged was the unfair termination of four employees last year. On March 7, a federal judge agreed to dismiss the union’s suit, with prejudice. HAMTC had sued WRPS in late January accusing the contractor of terminating the four employees in violation of a collective bargaining agreement. According to the union, under the collective bargaining agreement, the four employees “would receive written disciplinary warnings for alleged misconduct related to an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General” and that those written warnings “‘will be the last action concerning the … employees related to this issue.’”

The union did not say in its suit what “misconduct” the four employees were accused of, but all four have pled guilty to charges of time card fraud that occurred under former tank farms contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group. HAMTC had sought to have the four employees reinstated with full back pay and benefits, or to have WRPS submit to arbitration as to whether the termination of the four employees violated collective bargaining agreements, according to the union’s lawsuit.