A Honeywell-owned prime contractor for Sandia National Laboratories said in a Tuesday filing a wrongful firing suit brought against it by a scientist who worked on data for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant should remain in federal court.
National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia said the wrongful termination suit brought by plaintiff Charles Oakes, a scientist fired from his limited-term position at a remote Sandia office in Carlsbad, N.M., should remain before the U.S. District Court for New Mexico.
“Although Plaintiff’s office happened to be at a remote site in Carlsbad, this matter implicates the same federal interests as any other case involving Sandia’s employment practices on the [federal] enclave and are even greater than those involved in a typical employment case given that Plaintiff asserts a claim that Sandia misrepresented compliance with its contract with the NNSA,” the prime said. NNSA is DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
The lab said the Carlsbad group was in regular communication with their Sandia headquarters co-workers within “the federal enclave” at the Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque, N.M.
Oakes, has alleged he was wrongly fired in January 2019, and wants to remove the case back to New Mexico state court. Oakes was terminated about 18 months after being hired to provide scientific data on underground transuranic waste disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Sandia has a decades-long support relationship with WIPP, providing technical data on its operating permits and regulatory requirements.
Oakes claims he was fired after raising safety questions and has sued National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, the NNSA’s Honeywell-led prime at the site, and certain supervisors.
The defendants said there is no question Oakes’ work took place largely on the federal enclave and his lawsuit revolves around the federal enclave and there is no need to ship it back to state court.
