Two large trucking companies received orders from the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to compensate workers who said they were unable to drive because of illness.
OSHA described the carriers — Prime Inc. and Oak Harbor Freight Lines — as violating “whistleblower” protections in the Surface Transportation Assistance Act. Both companies denied wrongdoing and said they will appeal the rulings from OSHA administrative law judges.
The order against Prime, No. 21 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of for-hire carriers, calls for the company to pay a former employee nearly $101,000 in back wages and damages and take other corrective action, based on a situation that started in 2008.
“Prime’s policy is to not comment on pending litigation. Prime is appealing this investigative finding, and litigation will begin shortly. The next step is to have a trial on the merits,” company spokesman Clayton Brown said.
Oak Harbor, a regional less-than-truckload carrier based in Auburn, Wash., was ordered to pay lost wages of an unspecified amount, remove any occurrence from the driver’s personnel file and post notices at its terminals for drivers so they can read about their rights under the STAA, the agency said in a Jan. 2 statement. The case dates to 2010.
Oak Harbor spokesman Mike Hobby said the company has “a long record of compliance with the DOT and OSHA laws and a safety record that illustrates we hold the safety of our people and the motoring public as a first priority.”
He said the agency was not forthcoming in presenting its charges against the company.
“Oak Harbor had to file suit against OSHA to get OSHA to issue their preliminary findings so that Oak Harbor could defend its actions. . . . Oak Harbor believes the process is now moving forward and when all the facts are considered, the findings will be that Oak Harbor did not violate the law,” Hobby said.
