Fired whistleblower gets $100K in court settlement
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Wisconsin in Green Bay has awarded a machine operator $100,000 in back wages and compensatory damages after his employer Dura-Fibre LLC – based in Menasha, Wisconsin – terminated him for reporting injuries he and a co-worker sustained.
The judgment resolves a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor against Dura-Fibre LLC under the anti-retaliation provision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act). The court considered whether the company terminated the employee based on the company's policy of assigning disciplinary points to employees who reported injuries. The court found this policy to be a potential deterrent to reporting work-related injuries.