Former WRPS Worker Says She Was Terminated for Raising Concerns
Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
9/26/2014
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who has long been an advocate for whistleblowers at Hanford, is not happy with how the site’s tank farms contractor is handling its challenge to a preliminary order from the Department of Labor to reinstate a former employee who has charged she was terminated for raising concerns. Late last week, Washington River Protection Solutions asked for an administrative law judge to review DOL’s preliminary order that Shelly Doss, a former environmental specialist, be reinstated to her position with back pay and compensatory damages. While WRPS has said Doss was laid off with other employees in the fall of 2011 because of changes in workscope and funding, she charged that she was terminated in retaliation for reporting permit violations, recordkeeping errors, and lack of adherence to regulations—a position the Department of Labor agreed with in the order it issued in August. That order has been suspended pending the results of the administrative law judge review.
In a statement provided to WC Monitor this week, Wyden said Doss’ case represents “a perfect example of what’s wrong with the way whistleblowers are treated at Energy Department facilities.” He went on to say, “The Department of Labor ruled that Ms. Doss was fired for blowing the whistle on safety and environmental problems at the Hanford site, and even worse, it also found that the manager responsible for addressing employee concerns was part of [a] scheme to remove her. Now her employer has not only decided to challenge every aspect of the Labor Department decision, it has broadcast that decision to its entire workforce in a site-wide email. This trifecta of retaliatory behavior shows that there is no end to the lengths that management at Hanford will go to silence its critics and to intimidate anyone else who might step forward in the future.”
WRPS declined to comment directly on Wyden’s statement this week. The contractor, though, did provide a copy of the one-sentence message it had sent to employees regarding the appeal of the Labor Department order, which stated, “WRPS has requested a hearing before an administrative law judge to present its objections to the recent U.S. Department of Labor findings and preliminary order regarding a complaint filed by former employee Shelly Doss.” The DOE Office of River Protection also declined to comment directly on Wyden’s statement, but did reissue a statement first put out last week in response to WRPS’ challenge of the preliminary DOL order: "The Department was notified that WRPS has objected to the Department of Labor’s Preliminary Order and has requested a hearing in this matter. The Department will continue to follow this matter in the DOL process closely.”