BECKLEY – A man is suing International Coal Group after he claims his employment was wrongfully terminated.
Donnie Crum was hired by the defendant in July 2012 as a general mine foreman and was employed there until his termination on Dec. 6, according to a complaint filed April 18 in Raleigh Circuit Court and removed to federal court on May 19.
Crum claims at the time of his termination, he had been demoted to the evening shift foreman and since his termination, he has been unemployed.
The plaintiff was 55 years old at the time of his termination and he had planned to work until he reached the age of 65, had he not been terminated by the defendant, according to the suit.
Crum claims during his employment, he would report accidents to the defendant and the defendant would not follow proper procedures in an effort to minimize the number of reported accidents.
The plaintiff was also told that injured employees did not need to fill out accident reports, according to the suit.
Prior to his termination, Crum was questioned by an attorney hired by ICG to investigate the issue, along with Chris Sykes and Doug Conaway, both of whom were in management at ICG at the time, according to the suit.
Crum claims he informed them of what he had been told and what he knew about accidents not being reported, as well as the fact that he had been forced to send an employee underground who was on light duty, which is an unsafe practice.
The following day, Crum’s employment was terminated, according to the suit.
Crum is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. He is being represented by Greg A. Hewitt of Hewitt & Salvatore.
The defendant is represented by Mark H. Dellinger and Justin H. Harrison of Bowles Rice.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 5:17-cv-02980
