Fired safety whistleblower awarded $40K in damages
A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has awarded $40,000 for lost wages, pain and suffering, and punitive damages to a former employee of Fairmount Foundry Inc. The employee claimed that the Hamburg, Pennsylvania, iron-casting company terminated him for reporting alleged safety and health hazards to OSHA.
The verdict follows a lawsuit filed by the Department in September 2017 in which an OSHA whistleblower investigation determined that Fairmount Foundry fired the complainant in retaliation for engaging in a protected activity under Section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.