An employee who alleged age discrimination by the Energy Department’s liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has settled his federal lawsuit.
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 company spokesman Dean Campbell. “Beyond this, SRR has no comment.”
Savannah River Remediation could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. 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.
