Trucking firm must reinstate safety chief who reported hazards
Reprints
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has ordered a commercial tank trailer company to reinstate and pay $190,547 in back wages and damages to a safety manager who was suspended, demoted and eventually forced to resign for reporting a potential safety violation.
Minnetonka, Minnesota-based Polar Service Centers, a division of Polar Corp., violated the whistleblower provisions of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act by taking these actions against the manager after he reported that he suspected a Polar customer was improperly certifying trailers to haul hazardous waste — a potential and dangerous safety violation — to the U.S. Department of Transportation, OSHA said Tuesday in a statement.
The agency ordered the company to reinstate the manager to his position, pay $88,847 in back wages minus applicable employment taxes, and pay $100,000 in punitive damages and $1,700 in compensatory damages, as well as reasonable attorney fees.
“Censuring a worker for complying with the law clearly violates the whistleblower provisions of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act,” Ken Nishiyama Atha, OSHA's regional administrator in Chicago, said in a statement. “This act is designed to protect the safety of the motoring public. This employee did the right thing to protect others and was punished for it. OSHA is committed to protecting the rights of America's workers to refuse unsafe and unlawful orders from their employer.”
“PSC takes the safety of its employees, customers and the public very seriously, and will continue to do so in the future,” a Polar spokesman said in an emailed statement. “PSC disagrees with the findings of the DOL on this matter, and intends to file objections and request a hearing before an administrative law judge so this matter can be further reviewed.”
OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of 22 statutes, including the Surface Transportation Assistance Act.
Read Next
-
Employers set to fight OSHA over retaliation claims
Employers have more to worry about given the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's ramp-up of litigation to protect whistleblowing employees as it targets common workplace safety policies as well as supervisors.
