A San Jose trucking company is in hot water with OSHA after it disciplined two truck drivers who refused to drive when they were too sick to do so safely.
Transdev Services was ordered by OSHA to pay more than $145,000 in back wages and damages to the drivers.
OSHA began an investigation after it learned Transdev issued disciplinary points to the drivers after they reported they couldn’t safely operate the vehicles. The points led to the termination of one worker.
The agency found Transdev’s actions violated the Surface Transportation Assistance Act’s whistleblower provisions.
Transdev was ordered to:
- reinstate the fired employee
- remove the disciplinary points from both drivers’ records
- pay the terminated driver $95,000 in back wages and damages, and
- pay $50,000 in damages to the other driver.
The company must also train its managers, post a notice informing employees of workers’ protection rights under federal law and revise company policy to comply with the Surface Transportation Assistance Act.
