The Department of Energy’s environmental prime at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee said in a court filing last week that as a U.S. contractor it is shielded from a lawsuit brought under a state law by a former employee fired after refusing to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
In November, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Atchley refused to throw out the suit by Yolonda Riggs, a former radiation technician for United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR).
The state law cited by Riggs is designed to provide legal protection in many situations to employees who don’t want to be vaccinated or reveal their vaccination status.
The defendant, a joint venture led by Amentum, in charge of nuclear cleanup at the federal government site “is immune from plaintiff’s state law claims based on the doctrine of derivative sovereign immunity.” UCOR made the claim in its brief filed the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
UCOR also denied the measures Riggs proposed, in lieu of being vaccinated against COVID-19, “were as effective in protecting the health and safety of Defendant’s workforce” as having vaccinated employees working onsite.
The contractor acknowledges Riggs “voiced her objection to the COVID-19 vaccine and that she submitted a Religious Exemption Request Form.”
UCOR said that it understands Riggs was diagnosed with COVID-19 around Sept. 16, 2021 and “was hospitalized due to complications from the virus.”
In a form filed with the contractor, Riggs said “she received monoclonal antibodies” on Sept. 21, 2021 and so would have needed to wait 90 days from that date to receive the vaccine, which would be Dec. 21, 2021.
UCOR fired Riggs on Jan. 10, 2022.
As the U.S. government loosened many pandemic-related emergency measures, DOE has said most of its federal and contractor employees are vaccinated against the illness that claimed the lives of more than 1 million Americans, and it no longer requires proof of vaccination.
