CLOSING STATEMENTS EXPECTED TUESDAY IN LIVERMORE AGE DISCRIMINATION CASE

An age discrimination lawsuit filed by laid off Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory workers is expected to go to a jury this week as lawyers for the plaintiffs and defendants will give their closing statements Tuesday. The jury in the Alameda County (Calif.) Superior Court could return a verdict by the end of the week, deciding the validity of a case brought by five former lab workers that have alleged they were unfairly dismissed from the lab in 2008 because of age discrimination. The five workers are a “representative” group of 130 former lab workers that are suing contractor Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC in connection with the 2008 layoff of 440 lab employees, and the current trial represents the first phase of the trial. Lawyers for the workers, with an average age of 54, have argued that lab managers unfairly targeted the employees because of their age during the round of layoffs and were not released in reverse order of seniority, as they should have been. A handful of lab officials were called to testify in the trial, including former LLNL Director George Miller last week.