Attorneys for Mission Support Alliance (MSA) say the Hanford Site support-services contractor had good reason to fire an employee who filed a lawsuit alleging retaliation. The attorney for the former manager, Julie Atwood, claims she was targeted by upper management who did not value strong women.
Lawyers made their opening statements in the Benton County Superior Court trial in Atwood’s civil lawsuit against MSA on Sept. 15, with the jury trial scheduled to last for three weeks.
Plaintiff’s attorney Jack Sheridan said Atwood was told she would be fired shortly after she questioned the actions of an MSA vice president, Steve Young, who was her supervisor. She resigned under pressure on Sept. 19, 2013, in an attempt to save her reputation and pension, Sheridan said. Young also is named in the 2015 lawsuit.
The company launched an investigation of Atwood’s conduct in 2013 after an anonymous complaint was filed with MSA’s employee concerns office. When Atwood was called in for a two-hour interview by MSA officials looking into the complaint, she asked why she and not Young was being investigated. Atwood told investigators her supervisor treated women differently and that Young, the mayor of nearby Kennewick, conducted city business during hours he was supposed to be working for MSA, Sheridan said.
Sheridan said Young was also investigated, but that key documents have gone missing. An attorney for Mission Support Alliance disputed that claim. The company’s only investigations were the 2013 look into Atwood’s conduct and a probe of a similar earlier complaint against her, according to defense attorney Cristin Kent Aragon.
Atwood’s attorney said the 2013 investigation cleared her and she was blindsided upon learning she was being fired after the matter concluded. Aragon said there was not enough evidence to prove the allegations, but that Atwood was not cleared. “There were real problems with her behavior,” Aragon said.
Atwood was accused of time-card fraud, of creating a hostile work environment, and of abusing the close relationship she had built with a DOE official she worked with on MSA work. The relationship gave her power at Mission Support Alliance, allowing her to undermine Young and push her work off to co-workers, according to defense attorneys. The defense said Atwood often came in late or was missing during work hours. Atwood’s attorney said she had permission to work from home.
The 2013 complaint was filed with MSA shortly after Atwood returned from a last-minute trip to Malaysia, where her sister was working on a movie set. Aragon said the first notice from Atwood of her trip was a text message sent to a co-worker after she was already at the airport. Young did not know where she was, Aragon said. Sheridan said Atwood was required to take time off because of federal furloughs in 2013 and that she gave appropriate notice.
Atwood received strong performance reviews from the point she joined MSA in 2010 up to the time she was set to be fired, Sheridan said. He said he would call his client’s former supervisors over the last three decades to testify that she was a hard-working and knowledgeable employee.
Aragon said Young had tried to discuss job-performance issues with Atwood, but that he would back down when she would become upset. Young was not in the meeting in which Atwood was told she would be fired and has said he did not know she was being terminated, even though he was her boss, Sheridan said.
Aragon said a check of the hours Young had worked showed he was undercharging DOE for MSA work he performed. If he had to leave work to represent the city of Kennewick as mayor, he would work late to make up the time, Aragon said.
Atwood is asking a jury for lost wages and other damages. She believes she has been blacklisted from Hanford jobs since 2013, Sheridan said. The plaintiffs’ attorney said Atwood had put little effort into finding another job.
Mission Support Alliance provides a broad range of services at Hanford, including emergency response and training, fleet and road maintenance, and cybersecurity. Its current contract is valued at about $3 billion and will expire after a decade on May 25, 2019. The contractor is a partnership of Leidos, Jacobs, and Centerra Group.
