URS and its management will not be dismissed from a Hanford whistleblower lawsuit, Judge Craig Matheson has ruled in Benton County Superior Court.
Walt Tamosaitis filed a whistleblower case in Benton County Superior Court, claiming he was removed from his position as research and technology manager for the $12.2 billion vitrification plant at Hanford in retaliation for raising safety and technical concerns. Bechtel National disagrees.
Bechtel National holds the DOE contract to build the vitrification plant and URS is its primary subcontractor and Tamosaitis' employer. Tamosaitis continues to work for URS, but has been assigned to a basement office he shares with a copy machine and has not been given meaningful work, according to his lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that Bechtel and URS conspired to remove Tamosaitis because he was a whistleblower, which is the claim that URS had asked to be dismissed. The lawsuit also makes a second claim against Bechtel, alleging that Bechtel wrongly interfered to get URS to dismiss Tamosaitis from the project.
A day after Bechtel National claimed to meet its June 30, 2010, contract requirements for resolving technical issues related to safe operations of the vit plant, Tamosaitis questioned Bechtel's claims, the lawsuit alleges. Bechtel needed to meet the deadline to earn much of a $6 million payment from DOE.
Tamosaitis was dismissed from the project July 2 and escorted from the building where vitrification plant work was done.
URS said in a legal document that Tamosaitis sent an email July 1 with inappropriate comments to independent consultants on the project, which upset DOE and led to him being escorted from his building a day later. URS already had been looking for a position that Tamosaitis could move to as technical issues at the vit plant were being resolved.
Bechtel at the time thought that another URS position was available for Tamosaitis overseas, but URS legal documents indicate that the position was not definite and it planned to keep him on temporarily at the vit plant.
Matheson's ruling not to dismiss URS and three of its executives from the lawsuit said only that he had reviewed information and was denying the motion to dismiss.
-- Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com; More Hanford news at hanfordnews.com.
