San Onofre Welding Dispute : Fired A-Plant Worker Wins $1-Million Suit

A former night shift superintendent at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has been awarded more than $1 million in damages by a Vista jury that found he was wrongfully fired by his employer, Bechtel Construction Co.

Charles N. Slayton, 44, now a resident of Big Bear, was an Oceanside resident when he was fired by Bechtel in August, 1984, on grounds that he told a subordinate to take credit for a weld that was made by another worker.

The subordinate complained to Bechtel executives that Slayton had ordered him to falsify records, and Bechtel fired Slayton from his $55,000-a-year job. Slayton had worked for the company for 14 years.

Inspected and documented welds are a sensitive issue in the nuclear industry because of concern that a shoddy weld could have disastrous consequences. Complaints about poor welding or inadequate weld inspections has sparked numerous investigations over the years by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the utility-company owners of nuclear power plants throughout the country, and have been the topic of such popular movie fare as “The China Syndrome.”

Slayton contended in a civil lawsuit that he did not order the subordinate to falsify records, and by an 11-1 vote, the jury in this northern San Diego County community sided with Slayton on Thursday in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Terry O’Rourke.

The jury awarded Slayton $452,331 in general damages and $600,000 in punitive damages.

A Bechtel spokesman said the company would appeal the award.

“We are surprised and disappointed. We believe Bechtel acted properly and we intend to ask the judgment be set aside,” said Al Donner, a spokesman for the parent company, Bechtel Power Corp., in San Francisco. “We are confident that we will be vindicated.”

Carlsbad attorney Lee Landrum, who represented Slayton, said his client has gone without a job since being fired from Bechtel in 1984 because his career was tainted by the termination.

“Here is a graduate engineer who couldn’t get back into the industry because when job interviewers asked him why he left Bechtel, he has to tell them he was fired. He feels he’s been assassinated by Bechtel,” Landrum said.