A contractor in Massachusetts has been ordered by a jury to pay $650,000 to one of its former workers for retaliating against him after he reported an injury.
Jose Martin Paz Flores was an employee of Tara Construction Inc. and fell from a ladder March 29, 2017, while working as a drywall taper. He broke his leg. The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration investigated the incident.
Two to three weeks after the injury, Tara CEO Pedro Pirez called a Boston police detective to have Paz’s identification looked into. The detective alerted a sergeant with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On May 10, 2017, ICE worked with Pirez to arrest Paz, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That occurred when Paz went to Tara Construction that day to pick up some money from Pirez. As he drove away from the business, he was stopped and arrested while his toddler son was in the car. Pirez had been in contact with ICE ahead of the arrest and let them know Paz would be coming to pick up the money.
On February 27, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against Tara Construction and Pirez for retaliating against Paz in violation of whistleblower protection under the OSH Act. The protection stands regardless of immigration status and includes reporting an injury, OSHA says.
The lawsuit referred to text messages, phone records and statements from law enforcement that Pirez had helped arrange Paz’s arrest. Pirez denied doing anything wrong and said he had alerted police because Paz used a different first name for his employment than the name given at the hospital. He denied helping to arrange his arrest.
The suit says Paz would not have been arrested if he had not reported his injury. It cited the closeness in time of Pirez's actions and when Paz was injured.
