The UPS Whistle Blower Lawsuit

Whistle blowing has finally hit United Parcel Service. The courier and shipping company has been forced by the courts, to pay an employee $1 million as compensation for having treated him badly after he blew the whistle on managers who were violating company policy.

Michael Battaglia, a 51 year old UPS employee claimed in his lawsuit against UPS that after an incident in 2005, when he complained about acts against company policy being done by some managers, he was not only demoted, but was assigned to the night shift without any valid reason. He claimed it was in retaliation for having had the courage to expose the nefarious activities of these managers.

After a month of hearings, the N.J. Superior Court found that UPS had violated the state laws on protection to whistle bowers and anti-discrimination statutes. The courts awarded Mr. Battaglia $500,000 for economic loss and another $500,000 for emotional distress. However, the jury decided that this was enough and did not give him any punitive damages. UPS said, through the lawyers that the employers have accepted responsibility in this case.

While this may be a happy ending for Mr. Battaglia, let us not forget that he is just one among thousand of whistle blower complaints pending for adjudication. Many of them have been pending for a long time, leaving the whistle blower in limbo. The old saying of justice delayed is justice denied, is most true in the case of whistle blowers.

A whistle blower puts everything on the line – his income, his future prospects and his reputation to expose malfeasance, wrong doing and criminal activities. Often when while the whistleblower waits for the case to go to court, he/she may lose their job, face social isolation and experience emotional hardship.

While the protection and rewards available to whistle blowers has improved over the years and are continuing to get better, we believe the legal process should be timely and the settlement options swift. We have watched the agony that one goes through as a result of just trying to do the right thing. Perhaps with the recent changes in Washington, new laws can be enacted that would allow the process of whistleblower lawsuits to go much smoother.