Whistleblower Law Blog

TweetThe U.S. Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board (ARB) upheld a punitive-damages award of $100,000 in a truck driver’s retaliation case against UPS, flagging its broader reluctance to reject as excessive any punitive award under the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA).

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TweetMark Alvis Inc., a trucking company based in Brush Creek, Tennessee, has agreed to pay $30,000 and reinstate a whistleblower who the company allegedly fired because he refused to make an illegal delivery. On May 4, 2010, the employee injured himself while preparing a milk delivery.  When the company assigned him to make another delivery, [...]

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TweetM3 Transport LLC/SLT Expressway Inc. and its successors-in-interest, Lyons Capital LLC and the Roadmaster Group in Glendale, Arizona, were ordered last week by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to reinstate a former truck driver and pay him $315,000 in damages after being found to have violated the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA). On [...]

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TweetThe Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board (ARB) recently issued an opinion in Myers v. AMS/Breckenridge/Equity Group Leasing 1, ARB No. 10-144, ALJ Nos. 2010-STA-7 and 8 (ARB Aug. 3, 2012).  In Myers, the ARB reversed the ALJ’s decision finding the Respondent vicariously liable under a Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA) whistleblower complaint as a [...]

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TweetHeartland Transportation Inc., a U.S. Postal Service contract mail carrier based in Knoxville, Tennessee, has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) alleging that the company violated the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA) when it terminated an employee for complaining about defective vehicles. In August 2009, the driver [...]

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TweetThe U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last week ordered Interline Logistics Group LLC, a trucking company headquartered in Kennesaw, Georgia, to reinstate a Sauk Village truck driver, and pay over $190,000 in back wages and compensatory damages for violating the whistleblower provision of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA). The [...]

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TweetLast week the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ordered Rowan Business Forms, a Salisbury, North Carolina-based commercial printing company, to reinstate and pay over $83,000 in back wages and compensatory damages to a former truck driver after OSHA found reasonable cause to believe that Rowan violated the whistleblower provision of [...]

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TweetLast week the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found that Heartland Transportation Inc., a contract mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, violated the whistleblower provisions of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA) when it fired a driver for reporting safety hazards. OSHA ordered Heartland to reinstate the driver and [...]

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TweetCynthia Ferguson, an independent truck driver with over 15 years of experience, recently prevailed in a retaliation claim against New Prime Inc., a Missouri-based trucking company, under the whistleblower provisions of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA). New Prime terminated Ferguson after she refused to follow its dispatcher’s order to continue driving on a hazardous [...]

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TweetU.S. Department of Labor Administrative Law Judge Joseph E. Kane ordered whistleblower Edward Schrieber reinstaed with his former employer Beacon Transport, Inc.  ALJ Kane also awarded Schrieber back pay and attorneys’ fees. Beacon Transport had fired Schrieber after he had refused to haul cargo in his truck.  Truck drivers travelling on interstate highways are allowed to carry up [...]

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TweetOn May 24, 2010, Mr. Joe Oglesby, a former United States Marine, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), alleging that his former employer, Foresight Transportation Group (Foresight), pressured truck drivers to work more hours than safely allowed and then to falsify their log books to avoid suspicion.  Overturning the findings of [...]

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TweetIn Williams v. Domino’s Pizza, the Department of Labor Administrative Review Board (ARB) affirmed an order requesting Domino’s to reinstate and pay damages to Lavan Williams.  The ARB further held that Williams was engaging in a statutorily protected activity under the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA) when he reported to corporate that coworkers attempted to [...]

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TweetIn Klosterman v. E.J. Davies, Inc., the Administrative Review Board (ARB) held that an employee who left work after refusing to drive an unsafe truck had suffered an adverse action under the retaliation provision of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA), even though the employer interpreted his conduct as voluntary resignation.   The ARB articulated the [...]

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TweetThe U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) ordered Zurla Trucking of Fort Meyers, Florida to reinstate a truck driver who was terminated for refusing to drive unsafe trucks.  DOL also ordered the company to pay back pay plus interest, compensatory damages, and $125,000 in punitive damages, and required the company to delete “any adverse references related [...]

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TweetOn May 26, 2010, the Department of Labor ordered UPS to pay one of its drivers $111,008 in back wages, benefits, compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees for violations of the whistleblower provision of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA).  According to OSHA, UPS terminated the driver for refusing to drive a truck and [...]

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TweetOn March 11, 2010, Administrative Law Judge Rae issued an order holding that an agreement which provides a joint employer with the ability to accept or cancel the assignment of a leased employee may be sufficient to establish liability under the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA).  In Myers v. AMS Staff Leasing, the respondent contracted [...]

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TweetOn March 15, 2010, Administrative Law Judge Daniel Leland awarded Cynthia Ferguson over $151,000 including $75,000 in punitive damages, holding that she was terminated in retaliation for refusing to drive in hazardous conditions.  On a cross country trip, Ferguson encountered extremely inclement weather approaching Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Ferguson observed a truck [...]

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TweetIn Melton v. Yellow Transp. Inc., the Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board (ARB) clarified that it will apply the Burlington Northern standard to whistleblower cases when determining whether an employer violated a whistleblower retaliation protection provision.  This decision is significant because under Burlington, an employment action is materially adverse if it is capable of [...]

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