Investigation finds business, former owner retaliated when employees exercised their rights
BOISE, ID ‒ The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment in federal court requiring a Boise dog daycare facility and its former owner to pay $50,000 in general and punitive damages for terminating two employees unlawfully for raising workplace safety concerns about being exposed to the risk of the coronavirus amid the pandemic in June 2020.
On Oct. 2, 2023, Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho entered a consent judgment in which House of Hounds LLC and former owner Kayla Martin must pay each of the two employees $25,000 in general and punitive damages, provide a neutral employment recommendation, remove any reference to the incident from their employment records and apologize publicly on social media to the terminated employees.
The court’s action follows an investigation by the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration after two employees filed a whistleblower complaint, reporting that their employer fired them after they expressed concerns about working with a co-worker awaiting COVID-19 test results.
OSHA investigators learned that, after the employees raised their concerns, Martin told them to finish what they were doing and to clock out and go home. The employer then removed the two workers from the company’s social media platform and did not send either the revised weekly work schedule, which reflected the...
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