Carrier ordered to pay driver $100k in back wages, damages after blacklisting him

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has ordered the Springfield, Mo.-based New Prime Inc. to pay one of its former drivers more than $100,000 in back wages and damages after OHSA determined it had submitted “damaging and misleading information about his employment” to a driver screening service.

New Prime is part of Prime Inc., No. 17 on the CCJ Top 250.

OSHA says the move was retaliatory and that the carrier violated provisions of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act that protect drivers from retaliatory actions from carriers.

The driver — whose name was not released by OSHA — submitted the complaint to OSHA that spurred the investigation.

OSHA’s announcement says the driver notified New Prime in October 2008 that he had injured his back on the job and was prescribed medicine that made operating his truck unsafe. He recovered by July 2009 and was cleared by his doctor to return to full driving duty.

Instead of returning to New Prime, though, he tried to get a driving job elsewhere, per OSHA’s announcement.

The driver then learned, according to OSHA, that New Prime had given Drive-A-Check Report — a pre-employment and drug testing screening service — bad information on the driver’s employment history.