JURY REJECTS AGE DISCRIMINATION CLAIMS OF LAID OFF LLNL EMPLOYEES

An Alameda County (Calif.) jury has ruled against five former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employees that accused the lab of age discrimination in connection with a massive layoff in 2008. The five employees won a $2.7 wrongful termination verdict earlier last year, but in a separate trial focusing on age discrimination, a jury found Dec. 20 that the lab did not skew the layoffs toward older employees, as lawyers for the plaintiffs had argued. The five former employees are part of a group of 130 laid off employees suing the lab over the 2008 layoff of 440 lab workers. Livermore spokeswoman Lynda Seaver said the lab is “gratified that the jury recognized that Lab managers acted in good faith and in compliance with established Lab policies in selecting for layoff in 2008, and did not discriminate based on age of the five former employees whose claims were heard in this trial. We appreciate the jury’s substantial efforts over these past two months and thank them for their service.” A hearing has been scheduled for Feb. 5 to discuss how to proceed with the cases of the 125 remaining workers.