A federal judge in Knoxville overseeing litigation brought by a half-dozen employees refusing vaccination against COVID-19 at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has called for parties in the case to confer with him by telephone March 25.
U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. issued an order Monday setting the scheduling conference in the case brought against UT-Battelle, the University of Tennessee and Battelle venture that serves as DOE’s management contractor for the research institution.
“The Court expects counsel to be prepared to engage in a substantive discussion of the case, including the parties’ legal theories, facts in dispute, anticipated evidence, and all issues contemplated,” in discovery, the judge said in the one-page order. During the conference, the parties should also discuss the possibility of settlement.
The vaccine objectors filed a revised complaint in early January and after the plaintiffs received right-to-sue clearance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Judge Atchley refused the contractor’s motion to toss the case out of court.
The employees initially filed suit in October, weeks after President Joe Biden issued an executive order in September mandating worker vaccinations for contractors doing business with the federal government. The staffers, who were placed on unpaid leave, returned to the job in December after a federal judge in Georgia placed a nationwide stay on the contractor vaccination mandate. That case is set for oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in April.
