A UPS driver fired after raising complaints about Covid-19 safety concerns at the St. Johnsbury facility where she worked is back on the job after agreeing to drop her whistleblower complaints.
And, according to Marge Harvey, she had to apologize.
“I had to say it,” she said of the apology. Asked what she was told she had to apologize for, Harvey replied, “For all the trouble I caused the company.”
Harvey, a St. Johnsbury resident, said that in coming back to her job for the company she worked for since 1987 she would not receive any back pay or benefits for the period between when she was fired and when she was reinstated.
“It’s basically time served,” Harvey said. “That was the only punishment I was dealt.”
She added, ‘It comes down to keeping your retirement benefits.”
Matthew O’Connor, a UPS spokesperson, in an email Thursday in response to a request for comment wrote that he could say little about the decisions leading to Harvey’s reinstatement.
“Ms. Harvey has been reinstated through the company’s employee dispute resolution process,” O’Connor wrote, “but we do not disclose the additional information you’ve requested for employee privacy reasons.”
Harvey said she will retain her position as a union shop steward at the St. Johnsbury site, and member of the safety committee at the facility.
Harvey said she was fired from her job on April 10 at the UPS facility in St. Johnsbury, and then rehired April 28. The Burlington Free Press first reported Harvey’s reinstatement.
Following her termination she filed complaints at both the federal and state level with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. She said she began raising concerns about Covid-19 safety issues weeks earlier, from the lack of personal protective equipment to no guidelines for social distancing.
While Harvey said she was fired over the complaints, she said her boss at the time said it was for another reason: dishonesty over photos and videos she took on the job and posted to Facebook.
Harvey said when confronted by her boss, she told the truth about taking the photos and videos including one of a moose, but denied posting video online while working,
She said the company used that as an excuse for firing her when it was really in retaliation for her raising safety concerns at the facility.
Fellow workers and union members held protests outside UPS facilities in Vermont shortly after Harvey was terminated, seeking her reinstatement. Also, a change.org petition seeking her reinstatement had been signed by 80,196 people as of Thursday.
The organization Rights & Democracy Vermont had backed Harvey’s effort to get reinstated.
“Obviously, it’s a victory for her to get her job back. Anytime there’s a wrongful firing and people take collective action and get some justice, it’s important,” said James Haslam, the organization’s executive director.
“She should be proud of that,” he added. “Her co-workers should be proud of that.”
Harvey said she hasn’t had problems with her supervisors since returning to work.
“The management has not been harsh on me at all,” she said, adding that everyone at the facility has been busy with the increase in deliveries stemming from online ordering as many retail operations have had to curtail in-store shopping due to the coronavirus.
She did say that the facility also now has “plenty” of hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies.
“But they still slack on enforcement of the policies,” Harvey said. “Many people are not wearing face masks, they are not doing social distancing.”
She said she does her best to stay a safe distance away from other employees at work. “Each person has to be responsible for their own safety, the company is only going to do so much,” Harvey said.
She said since her return to work she has heard many kind words from customers, including a sign that was posted outside The Timeout Tavern Sports Bar & Grille in Canaan that read, “Welcome back Marge! We missed you.”