Oak Ridge worker loses job after cutting hand

OAK RIDGE (AP) — First he nearly lost his hand trying to get his work done. Then Joseph Vought lost his job.

The senior technician at Oak Ridge National Laboratory severed the tendons in his left hand in an October band-saw accident. Last week he was fired for violating safety procedures.

“It was just a matter of them making me an example,” Vought said. “I can’t think of any prior case where someone was terminated over safety violations.”

He was given the news after returning to work following lengthy rehab and surgery. Vought, 55, had worked at the plant for 17 years.

Jeff Smith, the lab’s deputy director for operations, said he wouldn’t comment directly on the matter.

“But I will say there have been other staff members who have violated safety requirements and have been disciplined, up to and including termination,” Smith said.

Vought said his ill-advised behavior didn’t put anyone at risk but himself. He said there have been more serious violations in the past, some of which resulted in radioactive releases or created workplace hazards.

“Nobody got fired for those,” he said.

Vought received his notice Feb. 10 after being medically cleared to return to work. But he said he knew it was coming after his accident was mentioned prominently in a Nov. 19 memo to staff from plant Director Jeff Wadsworth.

In that memo, Wadsworth said ORNL’s safety record was below the standard of other research labs and that it was jeopardizing the lab’s credibility with funding sources in Washington.

Wadsworth said individuals must bear responsibility for their own safety.

“This was not a case of the employee being injured by a freak accident beyond the employee’s control,” Wadsworth said. “Rather, the employee knowingly violated several fundamental safety procedures while using the equipment. If we are serious about changing the culture at ORNL, we simply cannot tolerate such indifference to safety.”

Vought said the accident happened Oct. 29 when he was preparing for a furnace operation by putting notches into the stainless-steel sample holders. A small saw typically used in the operations was out of order, so he went to the larger saw.

“But the saw jerked the material out of hand and jerked my hand up into the blade,” he said.

The blade cut seven of the tendons in his left hand, as well as many of the nerves.

Vinod Sikka, a corporate fellow and research group leader, said some staff members thought the firing was an extreme response.

“This is the first time, to my knowledge, that someone has been let go with a safety-related issue like this one,” Sikka said. “The main thing is, are staff aware of what are the consequences of different events?”

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