A senior contractor official at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant is making new allegations of harassment against her employer, URS. WTP Environmental and Nuclear Safety Manager Donna Busche has accused URS of unfairly refusing to provide her with paid time or time off to respond to a subpoena from attorneys for URS Energy and Construction seeking documents as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by another URS employee, Walter Tamosaitis, who has alleged he was removed from the WTP for raising safety concerns. In a legal filing last week challenging the subpoena, Busche said URS’ actions were retaliation for her testimony in the Tamosaitis suit, as well as for a whistleblower complaint she has filed with the Department of Labor and a concern filed with the Department of Energy alleging URS sought to interfere in a DOE investigation into safety issues at the Hanford vit plant. “The escalation of isolation, harassment and desperate treatment by URS, URS Energy & Construction, Inc., employees is directly interfering with my ability to complete my assigned job functions,” says Busche’s filing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.
Among the information being sought under the URS subpoena is all correspondence and documentation regarding Busche’s communications with Tamosaitis regarding the WTP; documents removed from Tamosaitis’ former office at the WTP; correspondence and documentation regarding communications Busche may have had with the watchdog group Hanford challenge or the media; documents regarding any claims or complaints Busche may have made to the DOE or URS employee concerns programs that mentioned Tamosaitis and all documents Busche may have described in previous conversations with others as her “whistleblowing handbook,” “whistleblowing cookbook,” “whistleblowing guidebook” or other similar terms.
URS has sought to refute Busche’s latest allegations of harassment and retaliation. “This is simply a subpoena for documents in a litigated matter and the documents are not protected from disclosure. We are filing a response to the motion opposing the subpoena and the court will make a ruling,” URS spokesman Keith Wood said in a written response late last week. In a filing in the Tamosaitis suit last week, URS alleged Busche may have acted improperly in removing WTP documents from the project without permission. “In fact, the only possible way in which URS EC’s subpoena could require Ms. Busche to produce any significant volume of documents would be if Ms. Busche’s unauthorized removal of project documentation and breach of her confidentially obligations was more significant than previously believed. In short, Ms. Busche’s stated concern about being required to amass work documents without compensation is disingenuous at best, and it should be disregarded,” the URS filing says.
The issue of whether employees at the WTP can raise safety concerns without fear of retaliation has been on the project has grappled with since Tamosaitis first made his allegations in the summer of 2010. While WTP contractor Bechtel National and URS, which serves as a subcontractor, have strongly denied such allegations, the issue prompted investigations by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and DOE that ultimately found that some WTP workers may not feel comfortable raising safety and technical issues, and that more timely resolution is needed for those technical issues that are raised. In response to the various reviews, both DOE and Bechtel National have begun taking actions to improve the safety culture at the project and each have developed more extensive corrective action plans for longer-term implementation. “The Department of Energy expects all contractors to support a strong nuclear safety and quality culture, in which employees feel free to raise issues without fear of retaliation. We continue to support that expectation,” Carrie Meyer, a spokeswoman for the DOE Office of River Protection at Hanford, said in a written response yesterday.
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