Department of Labor orders Maryland trucking company to pay nearly $29K in back wages, damages; reinstate driver who refused unsafe load

MAUGANSVILLE, MD - The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered a Maugansville transportation company to reinstate an employee and pay them nearly $30,000 in back wages and damages after finding the employer wrongly terminated the worker for refusing to drive an oversized load in an unsafe manner.

The decision follows an investigation by the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration that found TrueStart Transport LLC violated the whistleblower provision of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act by firing an employee who raised safety concerns when directed to transport an oversized load without the required escort vehicle. 

OSHA learned the employee notified the company that driving the load without an escort was dangerous but was told to do so anyway. When the employee objected, the company terminated them, left them stranded at a Tennessee truck stop, and forced them to pay their own way home to Texas.  

“Our investigation found TrueStart Transport wrongly fired the employee for insisting they follow safety requirements, which is a protected right under federal law,” said OSHA Regional Administrator Michael Rivera in Philadelphia. “The company’s actions were inexcusable and illegal and undermined an employee’s rightful concern for their own safety and the safety of others on the road.” 

Specifically, OSHA ordered the company to pay $9,698 in back wages and interest, $10,000 in punitive damages and $10,000 in compensatory damages.

TrueStart Transport LLC is a freight and heavy-haul trucking provider in Maugansville, Maryland.

OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program enforces the whistleblower provisions of 25 whistleblower statutes protecting employees from retaliation for reporting violations of various workplace safety and health, airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health insurance reform, motor vehicle safety, nuclear, pipeline, public transportation agency, railroad, maritime, securities, and tax laws and for engaging in other related protected activities. For more information on whistleblower protections, visit OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Programs webpage.

Read the Secretary’s Findings.                                         

Editor's note: The U.S. Department of Labor does not release the names of employees involved in whistleblower complaints.