Oregon ex-postal worker wins abuse settlement

MEDFORD, Ore. – A federal jury has awarded a former postal worker $258,000 for emotional damage she said she suffered during years of verbal abuse by the Medford postmaster.

Gayle Santoni, 39, sued after she was fired two years ago, saying it was in retaliation for complaining about Postmaster Jim Foucault’s verbal abuse against her and other employees.

“In the eight years Foucault was my supervisor, I put up with a tremendous amount of abuse,” Santoni said. “(Foucault) would constantly cuss and swear at us during meetings.”

Santoni described an atmosphere in which Foucault routinely berated workers by making them stand on chairs in front of other employees while he criticized them.

Several other postal workers testified against Foucault during the two-week trial.

A post office investigation in 2002 showed Foucault routinely changed employees’ shifts to deny them consecutive days off.

In addition, workers reported Foucault transferred them to undesirable positions in retaliation for speaking against him.

Since 2000, three people transferred from the Medford office to get away from Foucault, according to the investigation.

Foucault is still employed by the post office. He declined to comment on the ruling.

U.S. Postal Service District Manager Dallas Keck said he was disappointed.

Keck, who oversees the Portland district that includes Medford, said Santoni’s complaints were dealt with when she brought them up eight years ago.

“Since that time changes have been put into place,” Keck said. “There continues to be close supervision and oversight.”

Keck did not comment on Foucault’s future with the post office.

The pressures of the last eight years gave Santoni an “emotional breakdown,” she said.

She had to leave in July 2004 because of chronic anxiety, nausea and insomnia. A doctor cleared her to return to work in March 2005, with the stipulation that she not be stationed under Foucault.

She was fired later that year.

“They told me there was no job left for me here,” she said.

Attorney Paul Breed said the situation is indicative of problems across the country.

“This is a concern with the culture of the post office, not just in Oregon,” Breed said. “It is a closed system that is quasi-military in the way it is managed.”

Breed said post office massacres across the nation in recent years have shed light on similar conditions.

Santoni is currently unemployed.

“I am worried about the people who testified against Foucault who still work there,” she said.