PepsiCo Denied a Worker's Claim After He Was Shot on the Job. A Court Said That Was a Step Too Far.

WASHINGTON — When a PepsiCo packaging and distribution employee was shot by a coworker inside a company facility, he filed a workers' compensation claim. PepsiCo denied it. The company's denial notice stated the injury was not compensable because it "did not occur in the course and scope of employment" and that the "accident/injury occurred off premises." The shooting had occurred at a PepsiCo facility, during a shift, at the hands of a fellow PepsiCo employee.

A court subsequently ruled that PepsiCo's denial was not only wrong but legally consequential — finding that the company had forfeited its workers' compensation immunity by contesting jurisdiction in bad faith. The ruling effectively opened the door for the injured worker to pursue a full tort lawsuit against the company, a far more expensive legal exposure than a standard workers' comp claim would have created.

The case, first reported by WorkersCompensation.com in May 2024, has drawn attention among labor attorneys as an example of what critics describe as a reflexive denial posture by large employers — one that occasionally backfires but more often succeeds in discouraging workers from pursuing legitimate claims.

PepsiCo's marketing has long projected an image of youth and optimism. Former employees describe a different internal culture.

"The first move is almost always denial," said one workers' compensation attorney in Los Angeles who has handled multiple PepsiCo cases and asked not to be named citing ongoing matters. "The calculation is that most people won't fight it. They need money now, not in eighteen months after a hearing."

PepsiCo operates one of the largest direct-store-delivery workforces in the United States. Its drivers, warehouse workers, and production line employees perform physically demanding work at high volume. Injury rates in those roles are consistently above the national average for private industry, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data for the food and beverage manufacturing sector.

Good Jobs First, a nonpartisan research organization that tracks corporate regulatory violations, has logged 230 penalty records against PepsiCo since 2000, with total fines exceeding $68.6 million across federal agencies. The database, which draws on public enforcement records, does not isolate workers' compensation matters but reflects a broad pattern of labor and safety-related findings.

In 2022, PepsiCo agreed to pay $5 million to settle a class action brought by California delivery drivers who alleged the company systematically denied them legally required meal and rest breaks — a separate issue from injury claims but one that legal observers say reflects a similar operational philosophy.

"These are not isolated incidents," said a labor law professor at a public university who reviewed the public case record and asked not to be identified pending publication of related research. "When you see a company with this volume of litigation across this many states over this many years, you're not looking at a series of mistakes. You're looking at a system."

PepsiCo did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication. The company's legal filings in individual workers' compensation cases consistently describe each claim as being evaluated on its individual merits.

Workers' compensation attorneys who specialize in food and beverage industry cases say PepsiCo employees face a steeper path than employees at comparable companies. Multiple law firm websites now specifically identify PepsiCo by name as an employer whose claims process warrants legal representation from the outset — an unusual step that typically signals a documented pattern rather than isolated experience.

"I tell every PepsiCo worker the same thing," said one attorney whose firm handles cases in three states. "Do not file that claim without a lawyer. Do not assume that because you were hurt at work, they will pay for it. That is not how this works with this company."