LIVERMORE WEIGHING OPTIONS AFTER LOSING FIRST ROUND OF LAYOFF CASE IN COURT

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is considering its options in the wake of last week’s $2.7 million award by a California jury to five former workers that successfully argued that they were unjustly laid off in 2008, but the lab gave no sense that it is considering settling with another 125 former workers awaiting trial or appealing the decision. Lynda Seaver, a spokeswoman for lab manager Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, said while the lab “respectfully disagrees with the jury’s conclusions as to breach of contract, we understand that the jury was constrained in deciding the case based upon the evidence placed before it and under legal instructions provided by the court. … We are reviewing the entire record in this matter and considering our options in light of that record and the issues remaining to be decided in this case.” The workers, 66-year-old Elaine Andrews, 63-year-old Greg Olsen, 61-year-old Marian Barraza, 60-year-old James “Rocky” Torrice, and 57-year-old Mario Jimenez, were part of 440 full-time lab employees laid off in 2008, and they had alleged that they were targeted because of their age. A jury awarded the workers $2.7 million for breach of contract on Friday, and a separate trial on the employees’ age discrimination case is scheduled to follow.

Additionally, 125 more laid off Livermore employees are also awaiting trial, as the five employees represented “test cases” that were selected to go to trial first. “Now that the jury has found that LLNS acted in bad faith and did not have reasonable cause to select these loyal, long-term employees for layoff, we expect to be able to prove  that the entire layoff was unfair to the lab’s older workers,” said Randy Strauss, a lawyer for the workers. A hearing with Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman is scheduled for Thursday, and Gary Gwilliam, the lead counsel for the workers, urged the lab to settle the remaining cases, but he said the Department of Energy and the lab have been resistant to settling the case for the last year. “They should’ve settled this case a long time ago,” he said. “We won it, and we’re going to win the age discrimination case. It’s going to cost them all a hell of a lot more money.”