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Fired UPS driver awarded $5.45 million in whistleblower retaliation lawsuit

by City News Service • March 7, 2023 5 Comments

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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Filed Under: Business, Home, Los Angeles County

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

  1. JPB says

    March 12, 2023 at 4:14 pm

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

    Reply
  2. Local396@aol.com says

    March 12, 2023 at 3:02 am

    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

    Reply
  3. Daniel Gonzalez says

    March 8, 2023 at 10:01 am

    Who were Mr. Galvan’s attorney?

    Reply
  4. Juan Andrade says

    March 7, 2023 at 1:19 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Ramon says

      March 9, 2023 at 1:44 am

      Maybe you should speak with the attorneys who represented Richard Galvan

      Good luck!

      Reply

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