UPS Employee Claims Staff Was Ordered Back To Work Two Hours After Co-Worker Died On The Job
This isn't the first time UPS has faced scrutiny following the passing of an employee.
elbud | Shutterstock Losing a co-worker would be extremely upsetting under any circumstances, but losing a co-worker while on the job? That’s unimaginable. Unfortunately, that’s the exact situation one UPS facility found itself dealing with after equipment malfunctioned and led to an employee’s death.
This would be nothing short of traumatic for everyone involved. Common sense would warrant shutting down the facility for at least the remainder of the day and giving employees some time to process what happened. Instead, a person who claimed to work at the facility revealed that staff had to return to work just two hours after the death, when the body was still in the building.
A mother of five sadly passed away at a UPS facility in California in September.
ABC 7 reported that Shelma Reyna, an employee at the UPS facility on Atlas Road in Richmond, California, died around 4:16 p.m. on Sunday, September 21. The Richmond Police Department said that, at the time, Reyna appeared to be loading packages into a trailer by herself when some of the packages fell on top of her. First responders were called after a co-worker discovered her, but they were unable to save her.
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Esmeralda Ocampo, who identified herself as Reyna’s niece, started a GoFundMe on behalf of her cousin Aldo, one of Reyna’s children. In the fundraiser's description, she wrote, “On Sunday, September 21, 2025, my aunt experienced a horrible incident at UPS while she was working due to a malfunction of a machine that sadly took her away from us too soon.”
One of Reyna’s co-workers offered some more insight into what happened after Reyna’s death on Reddit.
In the r/UPSers subreddit, an anonymous employee who claimed to work with Reyna shared some disturbing claims about how UPS handled the incident.
“We had someone die today in a trailer on daysort towards end of shift,” they said. “They shut us down for about two hours between both shifts and then started the building back up. Left her in the trailer with the door open. She was in a bodybag and then some idiot (my opinion) covered her with small sort bags because they thought it would be better than us seeing the body bag.”
“She was still in the building when we left after 11 p.m.,” they continued. “They wouldn’t let anyone close the trailer ‘cause the police said it was a crime scene. It was just business as usual … I know OSHA and the police had to investigate, but it still seemed callous to me to have us in there working.”
One person who commented on the Reddit post said, “I heard the extendo malfunctioned and crushed her against the wall. I wasn’t there, but my friends were calling me to tell me about it.” Of course, these reports are unconfirmed.
This is not the first time UPS has faced allegations of creating an unsafe work environment.
According to The Guardian, Teamsters Local 767 union said there is no air conditioning in UPS delivery trucks. Family and friends alleged that this led to the death of Chris Begley in McKinney, Texas, as well as Luis Grimaldo in Bell County, Texas. Both were UPS drivers. A third unidentified driver in McKinney passed out while driving a UPS truck because of the heat and crashed.
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This is certainly concerning information, and it makes one wonder about the reputation UPS has as a credible company. However, whatever your thoughts on the company are, it doesn’t change the tragic fact that five children are now living without their mother. The injustice of it all feels overwhelming.
Speaking of her aunt, Ocampo said, “She was such an amazing person and had such a beautiful soul. She helped everyone around her that needed help. She was always such a positive person and made our days even better.”
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
