After spending 35 years as a factory worker for Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited, Hopkins says his bosses terminated him last month in a five-minute phone call with no benefits and no severance.

On Jan. 8, 2024, Hopkins says a 907 kg overhead sliding door malfunctioned while he was trying to open it. The force "tore the flap right out" of Hopkins' shoulder joint, also damaging his arm and neck.

"Insane pain. It was really, really bad," Hopkins told Go Public. He says he repeatedly warned a Coca-Cola Bottling supervisor and the maintenance department about the door months before the injury. He says nothing was done.

Hopkins believes his employer's lack of action led to his injury and ultimately his termination. CBC News asked Coca-Cola Bottling about that. It did not answer those questions.

The company offered him a one time "gratuitous" lump sum payment of $2,511.20, "in recognition" of his 35 years of service and to support his transition away from Coke Canada Bottling.

But the payment was conditional on Hopkins signing a non-disclosure agreement and releasing the company from liability.

After decades on the job, Hopkins says the offer felt insulting, so he turned it down.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Wow... that is way worse.

Reading the headline alone, I would have thought they terminated him since he couldn't work and gave him some money like 50k and benefits for 5 years of recovery or something. Still shitty for someone working there that long but not nothing.

No benefits and $2511.20? Wtf were they thinking.

I hope there's a paper trail about him reporting the door needing maintenance so they can drop the decimal then add 4 more zeros.

[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 13 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

How the hell do you come up with a figure like $2511.20? Are they really calculating the cents on the dollar for a hush money payout what the fuck? Can’t even round up to the nearest dollar; damn right it’s an insult.

[–] Phil_in_here 35 points 7 hours ago

Guys, Coke only increased their profits by less than 3% to less than $30 billion last year. If they paid out every one of their 70 000 employees for every horrible, preventable workplace accident the same $2500, that'd add up to $175 million. So if every single employee was injured like this every 2 days, and they had to pay out $175 million every other day, they'd actually lose a bit of profit by the end of the year. So you can clearly see how they came to that very reasonable and carefully considered sum as a basis to protect their business from financial collapse.

[–] BCsven 30 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Geez. A lawyer will get him a wrongful dismissal and get him termination pay, severance and a lump sum. It will be a big payout I expect for 35 years, and their actions.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Lawyer to jury: "We're not even sure how coke calculated the $2511.20 but it is an insult to the 35 years our client put in at the company. But we respect that they somehow did arrive at it, so we ask you to fix the problem but use their number by providing $25,112,000 in damages."