Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) has been ordered to pay $216,080 in back pay and compensation to two whistleblowers it removed from the job in 2012. The computer specialist employees had raised issues with a new electronic medical system when CSC held the Hanford Site occupational medicine contract.
In 2014 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ordered CSC to pay $186,000 in back wages to former workers Kirtley Clem and Matthew Spencer. CSC appealed the ruling, leading to the new order by an administrative law judge after a trial held over several days in November and then continued for several days in February.
Clem and Spencer argued at staff meetings and told their supervisor and managers that a new electronic medical system was not working correctly. They also brought the matter to the DOE Employee Concerns Program, but the system was deployed anyway. Labor Department Administrative Law Judge Christopher Larsen concluded that the program could put workers at risk, including by not accurately tracking medical restrictions. It created the potential for workers at risk of chronic beryllium disease to be assigned to work in areas where beryllium was present.
Clem and Spencer were suspended from their jobs in September 2012 after raising their concerns. Although CSC accused them then of sharing confidential information with a competitor, the company did not make that argument at trial. The watchdog organization Hanford Challenge, which helped represent the workers, pointed out that the judge characterized some of CSC’s arguments at trial as “an astonishing display of chutzpah.”
CSC officials could not agree on who made the decision to suspend the two employees. The company also said it had not acted in retaliation after it withheld “special pay” the workers had been offered for their long hours of work on the new system. “Whatever this evidentiary hash may be, it is not clear, and it is not convincing,” Larsen said in his order, which was issued last week.
CSC’s contract was set to expire at the end of September 2012, and the company was not eligible to compete for the new occupational medicine deal, which DOE had established as a small-business set aside. It appeared CSC then simply traded places with its small business subcontractor HPM, which was awarded the Hanford occupational medicine contract with CSC as a subcontractor, the judge said.
As the end of the CSC contract neared, management announced plans to cut information technology positions from six to three. Clem was not offered a position, but Spencer was before the suspension. However, Spencer had lined up a non-Hanford job amidst the uncertainty. Clem was not interviewed for or offered a position as openings became available after initial offers were made, according to information from the trial.
Because Spencer moved on to another job, the majority of the judgment award went to Clem. Both former workers were awarded the “special pay” the judge found had been withheld. Clem’s pay damages, which included lost wages, special pay, and employer contributions to his 401(k), came to almost $173,000. In addition, he received $30,000 in compensatory damages and Spencer was awarded $10,000 in compensatory damages. CSC also has been ordered to pay interest and attorneys’ fees and costs.
“While I feel vindicated by this decision, I continue to be very disappointed in the DOE’s inadequate protections for whistleblowers,” Clem said in a statement released by Hanford Challenge. Hanford Challenge attorney Nikolas Peterson said the outcome of the case should “send a message to Hanford employers that retaliating against employees who raise safety, health and other concerns is illegal and expensive.”
Hanford Challenge also pointed out that in July a Government Accountability Office report on whistleblowers said DOE had infrequently used its enforcement authority to hold contractors accountable for unlawful retaliation, issuing just two violation notices in the past 20 years.
CSC had not responded to a request for comment as of deadline Friday.
