Entergy Whistleblower Denied Justice

In September, a Department of Labor (DOL) appeals board overruled a decision in favor of a worker Entergy fired after reporting safety problems. The DOL's Administrative Review Board castigated the original judge in the case for ruling in favor of Carl Patrickson, who had been an engineer at the FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant since 1993. Judge Solomon ruled in 2005 that "Entergy used [alleged] performance problems as a pretext for discrimination." Solomon found that, for over six months, Entergy harassed and eventually fired Patrickson for reporting safety problems.

The ARB ruling sends a chilling message to nuclear workers around the country. As the Syracuse Post-Standard pointed out in an editorial:

[The ARB] should have unequivocally said that nothing in their decision should discourage workers from stepping forward when they learn of hazards.

Instead, the appeals judges so parsed and nitpicked the law and circumstances of the case that workers could hardly be blamed for concluding that there's little chance of winning a whistleblower suit.

... No one should have to pay a steep price for acting on his or her conscience.

The ARB also ignored one of the most alarming aspects of the case: the fact that Entergy managers may have lied under oath to cover up their retaliation. During the hearing, three Entergy officials at FitzPatrick -- including the plant Vice President and the Plant Manager -- testified that they did not know Patrickson had reported a safety problem to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission until after they had decided to fire him. The same individuals testified to an NRC investigator before they fired Patrickson that they knew he had reported the problem months before. The ARB did not consider this evidence in its ruling.

The fact that everyone in the chain of command from the manager of Patrickson's department to the top officials at the plant and Entergy's attorney was involved looks like there was a concerted effort to cover up retaliation against Patrickson. Workers at nuclear plants are the public's first and only protection from a nuclear accident. They must be able to have faith that the government will protect them from retaliation by their employers when they have the courage to blow the whistle. The DOL and the NRC must get to the bottom of this, rather than helping Entergy to avoid accountability.