ROANOKE, Va. – Ocal Smith, better known as “Bubba,” was a lineman with Appalachian Power for 17.5 years.
Smith said around 2018-2019 is when he noticed his management created an unsafe working environment.
“We don’t want anyone getting killed trying to turn the lights on, if the manual said use a rope to do this, I want to use a rope to this,” Smith said. “Well if the manual said, use the rope, my managers said no we don’t need to do that.”
Bubba said employees would work without protective gear and nearly get electrocuted.
“Employees would be really, really close to being injured,” Smith said.
He said his complaints fell on deaf ears years when he started to file them in 2014.
Unfortunately for Bubba, his complaints led to him to be terminated in March of 2019.
“Kind of showed my family that doing the right thing would get you in trouble, get you fired and lose everything you know as man,”
Bubba’s story doesn’t end there. After trying to find new employment, he claims Appalachian Power took steps to prevent him from getting a job elsewhere.
“They stayed on top of me trying to smash me down, couldn’t tell you how many jobs.”
Attorney Brittany Haddox says they fought Appalachian Power for three years trying to get all the information needed to prove that it created an unsafe environment for Bubba and his former coworkers.
“APCO went through the effort and call his new employer and have him removed from the job when he wasn’t on their property, " Haddox said.
In this lawsuit, Bubba filed for $3 million for two claims, one is that he was illegally fired for raising safety concerns.
The second is that Appalachian Power Company banned him for working on their property making it difficult to find contracted work in similar areas.
“It still affects him today, because he can’t work around here in his field of trade,” Haddox said.
After going to trial, the jury sided with Bubba in late April, awarding him $2.3 million in damages.
“This is the largest verdict for safety retaliation that has ever been achieved... It’s a grand slam,” Tommy Strelka, an employment attorney said.
Smith is pleased that he had the right people in his corner to highlight what the APCO was doing to its employees.
“If you stand up and do the right thing against the wrong people who want to do the wrong thing, in the end, you will come out ahead,” Smith said.
Appalachian Power was fined $34,000 in June 2018 for unsafe working conditions.
Another worker said he filed a lawsuit against Appalachian Power for dealing with similar scenarios as Smith and he is seeking $3 million in damages.
We reached out to Appalachian Power and officials provided us with this statement:
Workplace safety is of paramount concern for our business. It is at the heart of what we do.
We do not retaliate for reporting safety concerns, and in fact encourage it. We are proud of our speak-up culture, as we believe it improves our workplace.
Mr. Smith was not fired for reporting a safety concern. His employment at Appalachian Power was terminated for legitimate and non-discriminatory reasons (as evidenced by the attached federal court ruling in the company’s favor based on points of law).
We are disappointed with the state court jury verdict and with its magnitude.
No final judgment has been entered on the state court verdict, and we are reviewing our options to further address the matter.