An employee filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, accusing her employer—a printing plant—of assorted safety violations. A few days after filing the complaint, she held a lunchtime meeting with her co-workers in an effort to get them to protest their work conditions.

Later that same afternoon, she was called to her supervisor’s office where she was fired.

The Department of Labor brought this action, claiming that the employee’s termination was retaliatory. The company contended that during the meeting with her supervisor, the employee became loud, abusive, and even threatened him.

If the threatening and abusive language can be proven, should this constitute an independent reason for the discharge, such that the DOL’s claim of retaliatory firing should be defeated? Does the lunchtime meeting with her co-workers implicate any other federal labor statute in your consideration of this case? Does this consideration change the outcome? See Herman v. Crescent Publishing Group, Inc. [2000 WL 1371311 (S.D.N.Y.)].