The former owner of Banjo Billy’s Bus Tours has been ordered to pay a previous employee $11,000 for retaliating after an employee refused to drive an unsafe tour bus, officials said Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found reasonable cause to believe John Georgis, previous owner of the Boulder-based business that gives guided bus tours around Boulder and Denver, retaliated against an employee, according to a U.S. Department of Labor news release.
The employee has not been named in the incident.
Georgis violated the Surface Transportation Assistance Act, the release said. This act protects workers who raise concerns about commercial motor vehicle safety or security or who refuse to operate an unsafe vehicle.
An investigation determined that Georgis must pay the previous employee $11,000 in back wages, interest and punitive damage and expunge the former employee’s work records of any reference to the termination.
The tour bus company is now under new ownership, the release said.
Details about the condition of the bus were not immediately available.
“Employees should be free to exercise their rights under the law without fear of termination or retaliation by their employers,” said Gregory Baxter, OSHA’s regional administrator in Region 8 in Denver. “This lawsuit underscores the departmentap commitment to vigorously take action to protect workers’ rights.”
Banjo Billy’s Bus Tours or the complainant can file objections or request a hearing before the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges within 30 days of receiving OSHA’s order, the release said.
