PORTLAND — A 36-year-old former Schnitzer Steel Industries worker, who lives in Battle Ground, is suing the Portland-based company for $700,000 for firing him.
The company’s reason for terminating Steven Grove? He was wearing his wedding ring on the job against workplace safety policy, he said. Grove says Schnitzer Steel was retaliating against him for filing a workers’ compensation claim for an on-the-job injury about six weeks earlier.
A spokeswoman for Schnitzer Steel, one of the nation’s largest scrap metal recyclers, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. The suit was filed this week in Multnomah County Circuit Court by Portland attorney Shelley D. Russell, who also declined to comment.
The suit seeks $250,000 for past and future earnings and benefits, $250,000 for Grove’s mental anguish and suffering and $200,000 in punitive damages.
