The Antelope Valley Times

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Fired UPS driver awarded $5.45 million in whistleblower retaliation lawsuit

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A former UPS truck driver was awarded $5.45 million in his whistleblower retaliation suit alleging he was wrongfully fired from his job as a truck driver with the delivery service in 2017 after more than 30 years of service.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated for only a matter of hours on Monday, March 6, before finding in favor of Richard Galvan, who is now in is mid-50s. The panel did not make an additional finding that would have allowed its members to award punitive damages.

Galvan was hired at UPS in October 1986 and throughout his employment was a member of Teamsters Local 396, serving as union steward starting in 2000, the suit stated. Galvan was fired in January 2017 and was a big-rig driver at the time, according to his complaint.

Galvan alleged that UPS cut back his hours and discriminated against him because of an injury and due to his age. He maintained that younger workers with less seniority were taking some of his shifts as of August 2016 and that when he filed a grievance, the discrimination increased. Galvan also maintained he was assaulted by a co-worker with a known history of violence while he was participating in workers’ rights activism in an employee parking lot. The assailant was never disciplined, according to the suit filed in April 2018.

In their court papers, UPS attorneys denied Galvan was subjected to retaliation.

“Indeed, the evidence shows that Galvan raised hundreds of concerns throughout his 30-plus years of employment with UPS and was never subjected to any forms of retaliation for making such complaints,” the UPS lawyers argued in their court papers.

Galvan was fired because he was found to have “engaged in proven dishonesty” after an internal investigation and the decision was upheld by a neutral arbitrator in a union grievance hearing where several witnesses testified, including the plaintiff, according to the UPS attorneys’ court papers.

UPS did not authorize the co-worker’s alleged attack on Galvan, the UPS lawyers further state in their court papers.

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14 comments for "Fired UPS driver awarded $5.45 million in whistleblower retaliation lawsuit"

  1. David Roy has written a book and I encourage you to support him, read it, and fight for fair employee treatment. You all should check out this book SDN.. the UPSIDE DOWN WORLD OF UPS: A MEMOIR ON MY TRILAS AND TRIUMPHS.
    I encourage you to support him, read it, and fight for fair employee treatment. I encourage you to stick up for those around you and not be afraid to fight for what is right. Two chapters pertained to my brother, but he also has a plethora of examples of many other accounts of abusive treatment, not just for corporate greed.

    Most empoyees were too afraid to talk to me in fear of retaliation. My brothers last paycheck that his supervisor held onto for 4 months in his desk(illegally). This supervisor docked him for sick time(illegal), when he actually just went for lunch and died in the driveway. Supervisor stated this in front of other employees.
    Two chapters were about my brother, who died on his lunch hour (third night on new shift) which was considered “not on company time”. (the “second shift” was retaliation after they fired him two weeks prior)
    Per lawyers feedback to me, in Massachusetts you can’t sue your employer for wrongful death when an employee dies on the job. Google it! UPS moved him to 2nd shift emptying trailers (packages up to 150 lbs) with a heart condition, instead of letting him back to being a driver. Concentra, who does the DOT physical exams, passed him on the 2nd exam, 7 days after he failed it because he needed a heart valve replacement. Nothing had changed medically except for a Dr’s note, which UPS had him get revised 4 times. His Dr who is also negligent and said to my mother in the hospital while she was looking at her dead son, “I didn’t know what he did for work”, referring to his resume to full time letter to UPS. (Because that’s the only letter UPS would take and Dave had bills to pay and his 2nd upcoming heart valve surgery) He still needed heart surgery!! Concenta didn’t test him following the “legal guidelines required after failing it the first time”, but they couldn’t be sued because UPS knowingly put him in a trailer and not back driving. He had to die driving for us to be able to sue Concentra. We couldn’t sue UPS!
    There are so many stories my brother told me of the harrassment, vindictiveness, bullying, retaliation… Ex. setting him up.. Putting packages in the truck after he was done shift to fire him. Thank god he was friends with someone that had access to the camera. He had so many notes. He told me years prior they were going to kill him and to investigate them if something happened.

    I’m sorry for all of you struggling with UPS or other places. Keep fighting, use your union reps, find alliances. You are not alone, document and stick up for yourself.

  3. The Fern Street Mafia has been stealing from the taxpayers for decades and nothing is done about it.

  4. I worked at ups in Lancaster… ave L…. a while back, and they accused me of taking packages, when it was really a driver’s son. The driver got his son hired, and his son was a criminal. He wanted to get out of the trucks so him and his friends wouldn’t steal, so they gave him my position (correcting addresses and will call) despite seniority. I got multiple investigations while him his friends stole Dell computers and boxes from gamestop. This was back in 2005. I can’t believe they still work there

    • I have a harassment suit against UPS but my issue is not trusting Ethics point. Are they bias?

  6. I was also wrongfully terminated after 19 years at ups other employees were fired for the same reason and have there job back I feel they play favorite at ups and they didn’t want to give me my job back
    I never got written up never got suspended never got in trouble at ups and I feel I should of gotten another chance.