Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
10/2/2015
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) said this week it will pay a group of former employees $37.25 million in contract damages to settle a lawsuit in which 130 workers claimed they were unfairly laid off in 2008. The settlement resolves 129 of the claims, while one plaintiff did not settle, the lab said.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in 2007 transitioned lab management and operations to Lawrence Livermore National Security, a team made up mostly of contractors led by Bechtel National. The lawsuit followed soon after when cuts in federal funding led to what the lab’s announcement calls a “workforce restructuring,” in which it laid off more than 400 employees.
The claims of five “test plaintiffs” were litigated in two trials in 2013; one trial alleged a “breach of the plaintiffs’ employment contracts,” while a later trial “alleged that the Laboratory had discriminated against older employees in making layoff decisions.” The five plaintiffs were awarded $2.73 million in damages in the first trial, but their age discrimination claims were rejected in the second. These cases are among the 129 claims resolved in the latest settlement.
LLNL said “the parties engaged in a months-long mediation” that led to the settlement, and denied “any wrongdoing in connection with the circumstances underlying the work force reduction.” Neither party will comment on the case for a five-day period.
