Walmart should pay one in every of its former truck drivers $35 million after a jury discovered the retailer had falsely accused him of employees’ compensation fraud.
A San Bernardino County jury stated in a two-part verdict filed final week that former Walmart driver Jesus “Jesse” Fonseca is owed $25 million in punitive damages and $9.7 million in precise damages, which incorporates losses from misplaced wages and advantages and non-economic hurt, resembling emotional misery.
The semi-truck Fonseca was driving for the corporate was rear-ended by one other semi-truck in 2017, forcing him to file a employees’ compensation declare with a physician’s order to limit industrial driving and decrease lifting objects. In accordance with the lawsuit filed in 2019, Walmart denied Fonseca’s requests to accommodate his accidents with totally different work duties. The corporate later accused him of fraud, saying there was surveillance of him driving a private car whereas injured. The corporate fired Fonseca whereas he was on work-related damage go away for a breach of integrity in being “intentionally dishonest” and made him ineligible for being rehired.
“The notion that someone possibly performing daily activities outside of their work restrictions amounts to fraud is preposterous,” Fonseca’s criticism stated. “Yet, even if an employee with work restrictions inadvertently violates them, this does not amount to fraud in the workplace.”
Walmart, nonetheless, pushed again in opposition to the jury’s verdict, arguing its actions had been rightful. The retail big stated it is going to pursue cures, probably within the type of damages.
“This outrageous verdict simply does not reflect the straightforward and uncontested facts of this case,” a Walmart spokesperson instructed Fortune in an announcement.
Fonseca, who labored for the corporate for 14 years as a truck driver and mentored different drivers for over a decade, “lived and breathed Walmart,” in line with an X submit from David deRubertis, one in every of Fonseca’s attorneys.
However after leaving his submit at Walmart, Fonseca had little luck discovering a brand new job. Six months after being terminated and whereas he was making use of to new jobs, Fonseca was pressured to inform potential employers Walmart had fired him for “gross misconduct and integrity” as a result of he was suspended for fraud, in line with the lawsuit. He was not given job presents by these potential employers.
The $35 million in damages is a hefty payday for Fonseca. In accordance with job listings on Walmart’s web site, regional truck drivers make as much as $110,000 of their first 12 months. The retailer boosted its wage for the place in 2022 because the trade confronted a scarcity of practically 80,000 drivers as a result of elevated freight calls for and pandemic-induced challenges like closed driving faculties and DMVs, in line with the American Trucking Associations. In accordance with Walmart, the common pay of a long-haul freight driver in 2022 was about $56,000.
Fonseca’s different lawyer, Mohamed Eldessouky, stated in a assertion to CBS MoneyWatch the decision “sends a clear message.”
“If a company decides to question someone’s character and integrity, it must do so carefully and honestly,” he stated. “Walmart should rethink how it treats the hardworking drivers who are the backbone of its business.”
