(WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com)– A Luzerne County business and its owner has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars to a former employee among other penalties by a federal court following an investigation by the Department of Labor.
According to the release, a consent judgement filed in a PA federal district court has ordered Midvale Paper Box Company Inc. and owner, David Frank to pay an employee $13,000 for illegally firing the employee after mistakenly believing they had filed a safety complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
This all started back in October of 2017 when a Midvale Paper Box Company employee filed a complaint with OSHA that said the company didn’t give employees any kind of personal protective equipment (PPE) and lacked required lockout/tagout procedures.
That complaint was followed by a safety inspection by OSHA that resulted in the business being issued citations and the termination of an employee by Frank and the company that they believed filed the claim. That employee then filed an whistleblower claim saying that they were wrongfully terminated for the incident and was investigated.
A federal complaint was filed by the Department of Labor that alleged the former employee had their whistleblower rights violated as it is illegal for employers to take...
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