Judge awards Hanford whistleblowers $216,000

SEATTLE – A judge has awarded two whistleblowers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation more than $216,000, plus legal fees, after finding that the contractor they worked for retaliated against them for raising safety concerns.

Kirtley Clem and Matthew Spencer were working as computer professionals at Hanford’s medical clinic in 2012 when their employer, Computer Sciences Corp., was launching a new software system for medical records.

In a decision released Monday, a n administrative law judge with the U.S. Labor Department found that managers brushed aside their concerns that the new software system could put workers at risk. For example, according to the watchdog group Hanford Challenge, the system might have allowed an employee with beryllium disease to be assigned to areas of beryllium contamination.

Clem and Spencer were suspended without pay and then lost their jobs after going directly to the U.S. Department of Energy with their concerns.