I work construction. Two weeks ago there was a safety concern that was being willfully ignored by our on-site management, even though my coworker and I brought this concern up to our supervisor and his boss. My coworker then told our company’s safety director about this concern and he contacted corporate.
Fast forward to this week, him and I are put onto several projects that aren’t ready for our crew to work on. This has happened in the past and we just inform our supervisor and he contacts his supervisor who puts us on other projects that are ready for us. But this time we are told to continue working on the projects, so we do.
On Wednesday, he was given two projects to work on, let’s call them A and B. He informed our supervisor that these projects were not ready for our crew to work on but was told to work on them anyway. At the end of our shift, he turned in his report that said the projects weren’t completely done because the previous crews had not finished their part, but he had done all he could.
Then yesterday, our supervisor’s boss gives him two write-ups. One for not wearing his PPE (this write-up was written very vaguely and didn’t mention any specific dates or times when he was caught not wearing PPE), and another for lack of production for not completing projects A, B, and another project, C, which had never been given to him. He was then fired on the spot.
It was pretty obvious that this came about because he notified safety about a dangerous situation, and the site bosses were upset about it. I went and spoke with my supervisor’s boss about it and he told me that as soon as my coworker told safety “the whole office had it out for him”. Naturally I recorded our conversation so I have him admitting that he was fired as retaliation. I also have the piece of paper that he was given on Wednesday morning that show the two projects (A and B) that he was assigned to, and an email that he sent our supervisor explaining why he could not finish the projects due to the previous crews not finishing their part.
So, obviously my coworker has a case and I’m going to help him with the evidence I have, but now I’m looking for advice on getting fired in the same way. If these guys are dumb enough to retaliate that obviously, I want a case too.
So, questions:
Should I send some of this evidence to the highest supervisor on our job site, in order to give him the chance to do the right thing or give him the chance to fire me when I inevitably take it to corporate?
What damages is it possible to sue for in a case like this? Would it be worth it?
Any other advice would be most welcome.