{"id":36903,"date":"2024-12-06T12:08:50","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T17:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=36903"},"modified":"2024-12-06T12:08:50","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T17:08:50","slug":"department-of-labor-seeks-back-wages-damages-from-us-postal-service-for-allegedly-firing-a-worker-who-raised-safety-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2024\/12\/06\/department-of-labor-seeks-back-wages-damages-from-us-postal-service-for-allegedly-firing-a-worker-who-raised-safety-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Labor seeks back wages, damages from US Postal Service for allegedly firing a worker who raised safety concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"
Lawsuit alleges USPS, individual managers violated federal whistleblower protections<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
\n

CHARLEROI, PA\u00a0<\/strong>–<\/strong> 12\/6\/24 – <\/strong>The U.S. Department of Labor has filed suit against the U.S. Postal Service and two of its managers for wrongly terminating a contracted employee who raised safety concerns about loading dock equipment at the Charleroi Post Office.<\/p>\n

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the action follows an investigation by the\u00a0Occupational Safety and Health Administration<\/a>\u00a0that determined the U.S. Postal Service violated the whistleblower provisions of the\u00a0Occupational Safety and Health Act<\/a>\u00a0by firing a worker who refused to unload bulk mail because of a broken loading dock lift at its Pittsburgh sorting facility.<\/p>\n

OSHA investigators learned the worker ? an employee of Red Diamond Trucking Co. Inc., a Mc Kees Rocks, Pennsylvania, company contracted by the USPS ? was prevented from using small hampers to transport the mail safely because of the broken lift, which had almost injured the worker previously.<\/p>\n

Aware of the unsafe conditions, the worker asked to use smaller mail hampers to transfer the mail. In response, USPS employees at the facility accused the worker of refusing to handle the mail. They then confiscated the worker\u2019s badge, preventing them from working on the USPS contract. The employee told investigators they left the facility embarrassed and humiliated after being yelled at by others and confronted by USPS Police.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery worker deserves a safe workplace and the freedom to report unsafe conditions without the threat of retaliation,\u201d said OSHA Regional Administrator Michael Rivera in Philadelphia.\u00a0\u201cEmployers must understand that retaliation or termination for speaking up about hazards is not only unlawful but undermines the protections meant to keep workers safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s suit\u00a0asks the court to hold the USPS liable for the\u00a0illegal retaliation and require payment of back wages and damages.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen employers retaliate against workers who exercise their right to report unsafe workplace conditions, we will pursue all legal remedies to make sure those employees are made whole and ensure that employers do not engage in this conduct in the future,\u201d said Regional Solicitor of Labor Samantha Thomas in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

OSHA\u2019s Whistleblower Protection Program enforces the whistleblower provisions of 25 whistleblower statutes protecting employees from retaliation for reporting violations of workplace airline, anti-money laundering, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, criminal antitrust, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health insurance reform, maritime, motor vehicle safety, nuclear, pipeline, public transportation agency, railroad, safety and health, securities and tax laws. For more information on whistleblower protections, visit OSHA\u2019s\u00a0Whistleblower Protection Programs webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Editor’s note<\/strong>: The U.S. Department of Labor does not release the names of employees involved in whistleblower complaints.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawsuit alleges USPS, individual managers violated federal whistleblower protections CHARLEROI, PA\u00a0– 12\/6\/24 – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed suit against the U.S. Postal Service and two of its managers for wrongly terminating a contracted employee who raised safety concerns about loading dock equipment at the Charleroi Post Office. Filed in the U.S. District […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-usps-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36904,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36903\/revisions\/36904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}