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PLAINS TWP. — A local manufacturer has been sued by the U.S. Department of Labor, with the government claiming that an employee was illegally fired for reporting safety concerns.
The suit was filed against Midvale Paper Box Company Inc. and its owner, David Frank, earlier this month, but the Department of Labor formally announced the filing of the suit in a press release on Monday.
The suit deals with incidents occurring in 2017. According to the suit, Midvale Paper Box Company hired Martha Accamondo that June to work as a packer at the plant.
In August of that year, Accamondo was assigned to work on a shredder and baler machine. According to the suit, she asked for safety gloves to use on the machine, but her request was denied by plant supervisor Vincent Dellaperuto. She injured her hands while working on the machine, the suit says.
Then, in early October, an OSHA Compliance Safety and Health Officer arrived at the plant in response to a safety complaint. The complaint alleged, among other things, that the company failed to provide personal protective equipment or procedures for unjamming machines. The suit says Accamondo was not the individual who made the complaint that led to OSHA’s response.
OSHA proposed a penalty of more than $200,000 for nine workplace violations after the visit, the Department of Labor’s press release said.
After the OSHA visit, the suit says owner David Frank “posted at least three notices at the plant aimed at silencing employees and thwarting any future whistleblowers from contacting OSHA.”
These notices encouraged employees to “‘thank OSHA’ and accuse individuals who contact OSHA as disgruntled employees trying to ‘get back at the company.’”
Later that month, Accamondo was told by a coworker that management believed she was responsible for the OSHA inspection. That same day, Dellaperuto assigned her to work on the shredder and baler machine again.
“Dellaperuto was known to assign employees to the shredder/baler as a form of punishment since it is a dirty task and can pose hazards if product is stuck and the machine needs to be opened to be unjammed,” the government writes in its suit.
Accamondo asked Dellaperuto for a pair of gloves multiple times, the suit says, to which Dellaperuto allegedly responded “Door number one, door number two or door number three,” which the suit explains he admitted during an interview was a phrase he used when an employee should go home.
Accamondo left for the day and called OSHA. She went back the next day to learn she’d been fired, with Dellaperuto apparently alleging “she had abandoned her job, had performance issues and could not get along with coworkers.”
The suit says the Department of Labor determined that the company had violated section 11(c) of the OSHA Act of 1970, which specifically prevents the termination of any employee who “testified or is about to testify in any proceeding under the Act or related to the Act.”
The suit is seeking for Midvale Paper Box Company to pay Accamondo for “all past and future lost wages that resulted from her termination,” along with requirements that the company post the decree entered in the case and a notice that the company will not discriminate against employees.
A response from Midvale Paper Box Company has yet to be filed in the case, court records show.
“Employers who retaliate against workers for raising valid safety concerns are breaking the law and creating an unsafe work environment for all of their workers,” said OSHA Regional Administrator Michael Rivera in Philadelphia in the press release. “Employees have a right to a safe and healthful workplace, and must never fear that reporting their concerns will cost them their jobs.”