Los Alamos, NM: (Oct-10-07) A class action lawsuit was brought against Los Alamos National Laboratory, claiming that the University of California, which ran the laboratory from 1943 until 2006, discriminated against women and Hispanics in pay, promotions, and educational opportunities. As part of a settlement reached in mid 2007, a federal judge ordered a $16.4 million payout. Lab employee, Laurie Quon, appealed the settlement in Sept. 2007, threatening to postpone the payouts by several years. In her appeal, she claimed that the deal sought to give excessive payouts to women who initiated the lawsuit.
In a recent development, she withdrew her appeal. Documents filed in the case indicate that Quon withdrew the appeal after it was agreed that her attorneys would be paid $75,000 in fees. In a similar instance, one of the former lab workers who initiated the lawsuit in 2003 has filed a similar complaint after opting out of the class action settlement. Veronique Longmire's lawsuit, filed in August, names the University of California and the lab's new manager, Los Alamos National Security, as defendants. Longmire said she opted out of the class action lawsuit because it did not adjust salaries for female employees to fix what she believes are built-in inequities. [LAMONITOR: UofC LAB EMPLOYEES]
