A federal judge in South Carolina said on March 28 that race might have been a factor in why a laid-off employee with the liquid waste contractor for the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site was not rehired for a separate job five years ago.
Magistrate Judge Paige Gossett added that, while Savannah River Remediation (SRR) said it used evaluation scores in selecting Adrienne Saulsberry to be laid off in September 2013, it did not follow that method of deciding employment when she applied for a new position eight months later.
Saulsberry in 2016 sued SRR in U.S. District Court for South Carolina. Ahead of a potential trial, Gossett was asked to review the case, gather facts, and issue a report. Judge J. Michelle Childs will use that report to decide whether to issue summary judgment, as requested by SRR’s legal team, or allow the case to proceed to trial.
In her report last week, Gossett largely accepted the case made by Saulsberry, an African-American woman who had worked at the Savannah River Site since 1990 and as a radiological first line manager with Savannah River Remediation since 2008. In part, Gossett wrote SRR passed over rehiring Saulsberry in favor of white employees who were either less qualified than Saulsberry or had scored worse on employment evaluations.
Saulsberry said she was terminated in September 2013 after confirming to SRR management that a white employee had made racially motivated comments. In a lawsuit, she is seeking reinstatement, back pay, and payment of legal fees by SRR.
In May 2014, Saulsberry applied for one of two first-line manager positions with the contractor. She said she was turned down even though she was more qualified than the two white applicants who received the jobs.
“The evidence could reasonably support an inference that white former employees were treated more favorably than Saulsberry in connection with the rehiring preference,” Gossett wrote in her report.
