The Amentum-led environmental prime at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee this week told a federal appeals court it should have sovereign immunity, as a federal contractor, from a lawsuit by a radiation technician who was fired after refusing COVID- 19 vaccination.
In its 36-page filing Tuesday, UCOR LLC told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit it is immune from the suit filed by Yolonda Riggs under a state law designed to protect workers who refused to disclose their vaccination status.
Under the doctrine of derivative sovereign immunity, a federal contractor is immune from suit if the U.S. government authorized the contractor’s actions and validly conferred that authorization, according to the filing.
“The DOE required UCOR to take all reasonable precautions to protect the environment, health and safety of its employees” and in 2021 DOE modified the contract to basically require workforce vaccination against COVID-19.
Riggs filed her original complaint in the Circuit Court for Roane County, Tenn, on March 14, 2022, alleging she was wrongfully discharged for not receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and that her firing violated the Tennessee COVID-19 statute, according to UCOR. The case was soon removed to U.S. District Court for Eastern Tennessee.
In January, U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley ruled the Amentum-led contractor should not go through a trial until the Sixth Circuit decides if UCOR has sovereign immunity. This came after the judge refused to throw out Riggs’ case.
In Tuesday’s filing, UCOR said in October 2021, the DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management issued a unilateral contract change requiring the workforce to be fully vaccinated. UCOR said if it failed to carry out the policy it could have risked breaching its contract.
Further, UCOR said COVID-19 already proved a “grave threat.” For example, at the time UCOR filed its motion to dismiss in federal district court, “Tennessee had seen 2,515,130 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 29,263 deaths.”
Riggs has until March 21 to file a reply with the appeals court.
