Injury While Working, With Threats of Retaliation Over Lawsuit

[levanslhasas]

My husband is a heavy Equiptment Operator employed a government agency and in their union. While at work he fell off a large truck and broke his arm in 3 places. The accident happened while in a stone quarry, not owned by his employer, that had NO catwalk or any means to tie up his load without climbing onto the truck. We have brought a suit against this company it is pending.

The company is claiming a catwalk was in place at the time of injury, but in fact, we are aware appx. 6-8 weeks after my husbands accident the catwalk was put up and we have witnesses to that. Question one is can't the company be in deep doo doo over lying about this msha (mining safety) safety precaution (the catwalk) Is it fraud?

Problem 2, he has been back to work for 6 months now. Since being back they have given him all of the crap jobs and are refusing to let him drive any heavy equiptment, even though he has been released by his dr. Rumor's started about the agency he works for not being happy about him filing a lawsuit against a company that they have a contract with. So we figured thats why they have been treating him like crap at work.

On friday we got proof, the UNION president who is also my hubby's superior came right out and said to my hubby " Who do you think you are filing a suit against that company". And then said "If you drop the lawsuit you'll have better working conditions like they used to be, if not then I suggest you quit"

Can they do that?? Isn't it blackmail or extortion? They are trying to get him to drop the lawsuit and in return they will give him his old job back and make things nice and happy for him, or so they say.

Thanks in advance

[Mr. Knowitall]

Your husband has a lawyer for his lawsuit, right? So he should be asking these questions to his lawyer.

If you can prove a defendant is lying about something significant in relation to the cause of an accident, it generally increases the value of a lawsuit, sometimes quite substantially.

Your husband's lawyer should be able to tell him if he has any protections against retaliation by his employer in relation to his filing the lawsuit against the quarry. It may be possible to frame this as retaliation for his filing a comp claim (which I assume he did) even if it's "really" about the lawsuit. There can also be special rules and procedures involved for making claims against a government (I assume state government) employer. This should be discussed with his lawyer.