One major contractor at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina settled an age discrimination suit in the past week, while another is the target of newly-filed case, according to court records.
Amenetum-led Savannah River Remediation has agreed to settle the age discrimination case against it.
Meanwhile, a longtime employee has filed a lawsuit under the Americans With Disabilities Act against facility management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS).
The case was filed Wednesday in the Second Judicial Circuit of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas by Richard Lusby, who started working at Savannah River in 1991. The Aiken County man claims he was moved to a lower-paying job nearly eight years ago after missing work while being treated for cancer. Lusby also alleges SRNS repeatedly turned him down for better job openings after he was effectively demoted.
Lusby is seeking an unspecified amount of lost wages and punitive damages. Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions has 35 days to answer the complaint.
Lusby was diagnosed in 2009 with large cell, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to his complaint. He subsequently missed five months of work in 2009 and 2010 due to the cancer treatment. Prior to medical leave, Lusby was a first line manager within the SRNS Radiation Protection Department.
Lusby said he was replaced in fall 2012, during what Fluor-led SRNS called a “budget crisis,” by a less senior employee. Lusby’s replacement job paid $20,000 less annually, the lawsuit says.
In 2013, Lusby pursued an administrative “employee concern” case claiming disparate treatment in the removal from the higher-paying job. In the years after filing this action, he said SRNS retaliated by rejecting him for other higher-paying jobs for which he was qualified.
Others affected by the 2012 corporate belt-tightening were moved into comparable positions, Lusby said. Over the years, he applied for 14 better jobs and was turned down, the complaint says. In 2015, a hiring manager reportedly told Lusby he would never be allowed to return to the Radiation Protection Department.
The company “disputes Mr. Lusby’s version of events, and we are in the process of defending against his allegations through the appropriate legal channels,” an SRNS spokesperson said by email Monday.
SRR Settle Age Discrimination Suit
An employee who alleged age discrimination by liquid waste contractor SRR has agreed to settle the case.
In an order dated March 27, U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis said she has learned from the attorneys that Jeffrey Risher’s litigation against Savannah River Remediation has been settled.
“By agreement of the parties, the court retains jurisdiction to enforce the settlement agreement,” the judge said in a one-page written order that offered no details on the deal.
Risher, age 59 when he filed suit in U.S. District Court in South Carolina in October, said he and other employees of a similar age were being discriminated against by Savannah River Remediation in favor of younger workers.
Risher said he was replaced in his position as a shift technical engineer (STE) by a younger employee with less experience. The employee alleged he lost more than $32,000 as a result of his demotion to plant engineer in SRR’s Rapid Response Engineering Group. The company denied Risher’s pay was cut.
A year before losing his job as a shift technical engineer, Risher said SRR sent him and other STEs age 50 and older a letter asking them to consider making way for certain younger engineers.
He sought reinstatement to his old job, along with back pay plus interest.
The vendor is “pleased to report that the matter was amicably resolved,” said Savannah River Remediation spokesman Dean Campbell. “Beyond this, SRR has no comment.”
The joint venture comprised of Amentum (the former AECOM Management Services), Bechtel, Jacobs, and BWX Technologies, has held the $6 billion waste management business at SRS since July 2009.
