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Alamos Fires, Disciplines Employees
LANL fires, disciplines Employees
by Diana Heil, September 16, 2004
In an unprecedented move, Los Alamos National Laboratory
fired four employees at once Wednesday.
Over the summer, 23 workers have been on paid leave
while the lab investigated them in connection with suspected safety
and security violations. Now, only 10 employees will return to the
office unblemished — "with no findings of wrongdoing.”
In addition to the four who lost their jobs, another
employee might resign instead of being fired. Seven more were punished.
And one employee is still under investigation.
In early July, the lab reported two computer disks
missing from the Weapons Directorate during a special inventory
for an upcoming experiment. Director Pete Nanos suspended all work
a week later and ordered employees through a lengthy process designed
to tighten safety and security.
Although the FBI hasn't disclosed whether the two
computer disks that supposedly disappeared this summer ever existed,
the lab has completed its own internal investigation. The personnel
actions are based on "enough factual information” gathered
through the internal investigation, Nanos said in a memo to employees
Wednesday.
The lab also looked into the case of a student intern
who was injured in an accident with a laser.
Three of the workers will leave the lab in connection
with the missing computer disks; the other two were involved in
the laser accident, Nanos told The Associated Press.
The seven punished employees who kept their jobs were
either reprimanded in writing, demoted, given a reduced salary or
suspended without pay — or a combination of those actions.
What's "pretty unusual” about this situation
is two incidents occurred close together and five people have left
the lab, spokesman Kevin Roark said. "But mostly it's all the
publicity that makes it so out of the ordinary,” he said.
Occasionally, the lab fires employees for security,
safety and other violations but without much news coverage. Typically,
it's one person at a time.
"Contrary to the popular belief, people do get
fired from the lab from time to time,” said Roark, who did
not know how many people in all the lab has fired this year.
Officials would not release the names, positions or
departments of the 23 employees who were being investigated or the
names of those fired. Workers can appeal the actions and request
a hearing before a panel.
There appear to be no trends among the 13 employees
who were subject to action from the lab. "They cross all levels
of laboratory employment and a wide variety of tenure — from
many, many years to a shorter period of time,” Roark said.
The security-and-safeguards division and the human-resources
division conducted the investigations. Afterward, a lab board and
a University of California board reviewed the findings.
Some suspect the lab is making bold moves to help
University of California's chances in keeping the management contract,
which will be up for competitive bid this year for the first time
in 60 years. "It's a sign that they're interested in keeping
the contract, to me,” said former lab worker Chris Mechels.
Mechels, who worked in the lab's supercomputing division
until he retired in 1994, said Nanos must "play hard ball”
to change bad practices ingrained in lab culture.
"Some of these terminations could easily have
been warranted,” he said. "I'd like to see (the lab)
announce the reasons, so it's very clear that it was based on some
very real issues.”
Historically, good scientists and employees who were
good friends with their managers could escape firing, Mechels said.
He hopes that trend is changing.
"My frustration with the laboratory has been
they have never played a serious game with safety or security,”
he said.
To this day, he wonders why the lab didn't fire anyone
over computer hard-drive violations in the past. "How bad do
you have to screw up to get fired?” he said.
If employees are going to take the code of safety
and security seriously, the lab cannot be afraid to fire managers
or senior scientists, Mechels said. He also thinks the lab should
involve the union in safety walk-throughs. When managers do it,
"it's like criticizing your own kids,” he said.
After seeing what Nanos considered a pattern
of lapses in security and safety, he ordered employees to stop most
work July 16. By the end of September, most activities will be restarted,
he said in a memo Wednesday. To date, 100 percent of low-risk activities
and 42 percent of medium-risk activities have resumed. The highest-risk
activities will begin soon.
Originally published by The New Mexican.
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