As a discrimination case filed against Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor approaches trial next month, the company is petitioning a federal judge to bar evidence from being presented regarding four white employees on the basis that their jobs are irrelevant to the case.
Adrienne Saulsberry, an African-American woman who was terminated by Savannah River Remediation (SRR), has cited those employees in her lawsuit as examples of discrimination. Saulsberry says they were able to retain jobs with the contractor despite arrests and poor work performances while she was let go based on her race.
Savannah River Remediation on Aug. 23 filed a motion in limine, which asks for certain evidence to be excluded from the trial. The contractor is concerned that Saulsberry’s testimony during the trial will include “irrelevant” details about the four: white men who were not part of the 2013 reduction in workforce in which Saulsberry and more than 450 other SRR employees were laid off.
Since filing her suit in August 2016, Saulsberry has maintained she lost her job during the reduction because she reported a white co-worker for made racially insensitive comments. At the time she was a first-line manager at the SRS liquid waste tank farms, overseeing other workers and operations.
Saulsberry then applied for one of two similar managerial positions with SRR in 2014, but claims she was not given an interview because of the previous incident even though she was more qualified than the workers who got the jobs. Saulsberry is seeking reinstatement, back pay, and payment of her legal fees.
The four white men all kept their jobs during the reduction despite issues with their work performances and criminal misdemeanors, according to Saulsberry in her original complaint. One of the men, for example, was arrested for soliciting a prostitute, the lawsuit says. Another reportedly had only been on the job for five months and was able to keep his job, while Saulsberry was let go after 23 years of experience.
The trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 23 in U.S. District Court in Columbia, S.C.
