LANL Employee Awarded $1 million
By Mark Oswald / Journal Staff Writer on Thu, Feb 21, 2013
SANTA
FE – A Santa Fe jury has awarded $1 million plus $1 to a Los Alamos
National Laboratory employee whose 2010 lawsuit alleged that a
supervisor made comments about using a gun to settle office work issues.
In one instance, the lawsuit alleged, the Los Alamos police and the
lab’s own SWAT team responded after the supervisor got upset about a
work plan, “went ballistic” and said he was going to “bring in a gun and
take care of it himself.”
Marlayne Mahar also contended in the suit
that her problems at LANL started after she and her group leader
reported nuclear materials inventory problems at the lab’s plutonium
processing facility.
The lab disputed her allegations and many of the specifics of her suit’s account of the incidents that led to the litigation.
After
a 3 1/2-day trial before District Judge Sarah Singleton, the jury early
this week awarded Mahar $1 million in punitive damages and another $1
in nominal damages.
The jury ruled against Los Alamos National
Security LLC, the partnership that runs the lab, on counts of breach of
LANL’s workplace violence policy, breach of contract and acting in bad
faith.
Two individual lab officials, Randy Fraser and Joel Williams,
originally were named as defendants in the suit but were dismissed as
the litigation proceeded.
Mahar, a lab employee since 1999 who still
works there, had no comment. Her lawyer, Tim Butler of Santa Fe, said
the jurors listened to evidence from both sides, made the award in
Mahar’s favor and that he and Mahar “respect their decision.”
A LANL
spokeswoman provided a statement that the lab intends “to file a
post-trial motion to challenge the results” of the trial.
Read the rest at:
http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2013/02/21/news/lanl-employee-awarded-1-million.html
25 comments:
With the sexual harassment elevator case and now this it sounds like good times at LANL. Sounds like they have some top notch of managers and supervisors. Wow just wow. I guess there is going to be a settlement or lawsuit in the elevator case as well.
What the hell? A supervisor can't speak hyperbole to a subordinate any more?
"Your performance stinks! You are a jackass. I will shoot your ass! That was a crappy job."
It is well understood, at least by the semi-literate, (though not apparently in NM) that none of the above examples of hyperbole are intended to literal. They express frustration and emotional intensity on the part of the speaker. Rather clearly.
The way to interpret them is. "Oh,boy, my supervisor is disappointed and frustrated that I am not performing properly, the event is important to me because the supervisor has elevated the emotion level and added the rhetoric device, hyperbole, clearly and subtly communicate that my choices are putting me at risk..."
No big deal, choose a less violent, still hyperbolic phrase.
"Your performance of this duty is below minimum expectations for this assignment and below performers at your pay grade and if you continue you are at risk for corrective action."
Is this really better than, "keep it up, and I'm gonna shoot your ass."?
Is this really better than, "keep it up, and I'm gonna shoot your ass."?
February 21, 2013 at 9:08 PM
Only if you have some silly notion that managers and supervisors should act and speak professionally.
Another excellent example of "top quality" LANS corporate "for profit" management at work performing their famous "Do as I say, not as I do" refrain. This is getting old, is it not?
First this month, we find out about a bully LANS upper level manager who stalks and accosts women on elevators. Oops! Time to demand that the regular staff receive more sexual harassment training immediately! (Managers can safely ignore this training requirement, per the usual)
Now, at the end of the month we find out about a LANS upper level manager who threatens his staff with violent gun threats. Oops! Time to demand that the regular staff receive more workplace violence training. (Managers can safely ignore this training requirement, per the usual)
Most of those in the regular staff who remain at LANL during these sad years of turmoil have seen the major problem at LANL and it is not the staff. It's the LANS management team! They are a sick corporate joke -- overpaid, arrogant and very incompetent.
LANS is going to fight this decision "tooth and nail" with every lawyer they have in their disposal. They'll end up spending many million of dollars of taxpayer dollars on this case. Question is, "do they feel lucky" and where are they ultimately getting the money from to pay for this fiasco, their "fee/slush fund" or the programs?
LANS, you lost your asses, live with it, you bunch of slimy con artists!
Joel Williams is the Security and Safeguards (SAFE) Division Leader. Otta boy Joel, hecka of job, hecka of a job! Sounds like you'll be in for a promotion.
"February 21, 2013 at 9:08 PM"
In order for management to be effective and act in a expedient manner sometimes euphemisms must be used to make a clear point. It is a very hard job being in management and one has to act fast and decisively. In some cases a good manager will be in a no win situation but will still make the tough decision when necessary. We place huge demands on our mangers at LANL so we must remember to treat them with respect and understand the additional burden they face.
Managers as a whole should be exempt from the rules the staff has to abide by. It makes sense in many ways. Once one gets to the ranks of a manger in an organization like LANL it means you have to be the best of the best. They earned it the staff did not. It is the law of the corporate world that there are lions and gazelles and people should not sue when they get treated like the gazelle they are.
"Is this really better than, "keep it up, and I'm gonna shoot your ass."?"
Umm...yes this is better. Your post was a joke right?
Umm...yes this is better. Your post was a joke right?
February 22, 2013 at 7:31 AM
One hopes so. And also that February 22, 2013 at 7:28 AM's post was also a joke. "Managers as a whole should be exempt from the rules the staff has to abide by." HaHaHaHaHa!!
If you have spent much time working at LANL you can probably understand that this is just an example of the bullying that pervades the culture. Not defending the practice, but it is rampant at the higher levels of management. In this case, it looks as if the jury was sending a message with the size of the award.
... and yet, the violence prone managers who created this expensive legal mess and lost their case in court are still in their positions at LANL with the blessing of McMillan.
Shameful, Charlie. You've lost all credibility with the workforce.
At what point will LANS accept some responsibility for one (or some) of it's Managers "gone wild"!
Shameful, Charlie. You've lost all credibility with the workforce.
February 22, 2013 at 3:47 PM
Wrong.
Charlie can not lose something that he never had.
well, the hiring of Marquez over a decade ago, in the midst of his sexual harassment lawsuit with this prior employer (Burns & Roe) was a clear message about the Lab's stance on the issue. Rich, to his credit, has brought in many high paying support side jobs to the Northern New Mexico community. Watch out now, although this lady won a large lawsuit, look for more questioning attitudes on the part of mostly male hiring authorities when it comes to hiring females. Ask yourself, when you read the newspaper accounts, if all the facts were exactly the same, would a male plaintiff have prevailed in this case?
If you're a regular staff member and you were accused of making *violent gun threats* to other employees, do you think LANS "Good ol' Boy" network of overpaid managers would spend millions of dollars defending YOU?
No way.
Ask yourself, when you read the newspaper accounts, if all the facts were exactly the same, would a male plaintiff have prevailed in this case?
February 22, 2013 at 7:24 PM
Versus a "red-hot" blonde. Hell no!
collective denial
Thank God we still have Bret Knapp.
Thank God we still have Bret Knapp.
February 23, 2013 at 2:33 AM
Amen brother! Knapp is constantly dazzling us with his brilliance and leadership prowess. The man is truly in a class by himself, where no man has gone before...
Mahar, a lab employee since 1999 who still works there, had no comment. Her lawyer, Tim Butler of Santa Fe, said the jurors listened to evidence from both sides, made the award in Mahar’s favor and that he and Mahar “respect their decision.”
No shit! I too wold respect any decision that deposited $1M and $1 in my back account, which after Obama takes his cut, Butler takes his cut, will amount to a cool annual salary for Mahar, whicj means we will see her back at work on Monday looking for another LANS ambulance to chase down.
"No shit! I too wold respect any decision that deposited $1M and $1 in my back account, which after Obama takes his cut, Butler takes his cut, will amount to a cool annual salary for Mahar, whicj means we will see her back at work on Monday looking for another LANS ambulance to chase down.
February 23, 2013 at 5:54
Hey the BDT is BACK!!!! Hell ya baby we know you could not stay away. Keep it coming BDT, you may not the best or the brightest but you are consistent. By Sunday your bender should be in full swing so we expect some good stuff Mr Bitter Drunken Troll.
February 23, 2013 at 7:53 PM
Man, you are sick.
BDT!!!!!!
Two individual lab officials, Randy Fraser and Joel Williams, originally were named as defendants in the suit but were dismissed as the litigation proceeded.
Mahar, a lab employee since 1999 who still works there, had no comment.
los-alamos
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