Gaines Motor Lines will have to pay employees who federal officials say were fired in violation of whistleblower protection.
The US Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration ordered Gaines Motor Lines Inc., and individuals Tim Gaines and Rick Tompkins, to compensate four former truck drivers more than $1 million in back pay wages, interest, compensatory and punitive damages.
"The whistleblower complaint alleged that four employees were terminated for participating in an inspection audit of the commercial motor carrier company's facility in Hickory, which was conducted by the Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration," said a release from the U.S. Department of Labor. "From Feb. 28 through March 1, 2012, the four employees were interviewed on-site by the FMCSA. On March 8, following the audit and subsequent citations issued against Gaines Motor Lines, the workers suffered adverse retaliation by company officials, including termination, layoffs and removal of employee benefits."
The Department of Labor does not release the names of the employees involved in whistleblower complaints.
The company was cited for hours-of-service violations. Duane DeBruyne, spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said if a trucking or bus company is sending drivers from state to state, there are limits. A driver going between states can only be behind the wheel for 11 hours during a 14-hour shift. Then the driver has to take 10 hours off before getting behind the wheel again, DeBruyne said.
DeBruyne said before a company can operate in inter-state commerce, it needs a Department of Transportation number. The owners and their employees are then obliged to comply with federal regulation, he said.
Gaines and Tompkins were named in addition to the company because if the company goes out of business, the Department of Labor will go after the personal assets of Tim Gaines and Rick Tompkins, including any real property and personal property, said Michael D'Aquino, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor
Each employee was awarded $50,000 for mental anguish, pain and suffering; three of the four -- one employee died earlier this year -- get $225,000 for punitive damages; each complainant has a separate calculating spreadsheet, and back pay is still accruing until the company makes a bona fide offer to reinstate the employees, regardless if the employees accept it or not, D'Aquino said.
The company has 30 days from receipt of the findings to appeal to the Department of Labor's Office of Administrative Law Judges, D'Aquino said. He said the department has no information that either side has appealed decision.
Tim Gaines, owner of Gaines Motor Lines, could not be reached for comment.
