From the National Master Agreement
Article 10
Loss and Damage
Section 1.
No employee shall make any reimbursement or have monies deducted from his/her pay for loss or damage to parcels except as provided in this Section.....
......When an employee is subject to discipline, the employee shall not make any reimbursement for such loss or damage. When an employee is subject to reimbursement, the employee shall not be subject to discipline for such loss or damage.....
This Article is not to be construed as permitting charges for loss or damage to equipment....
I edited out the portions of the article dealing with Driver Release claims and COD shortages for clarity.
In a nutshell, this Article says that the driver can only be issued a warning letter for losing his DIAD, he cannot be made to pay for it.
The company might try to get him to sign a letter agreeing to pay for it, and threaten him with a warning letter if he doesnt, but they cant force him to pay for it.
If it were me, I would accept the warning letter rather than cough up $2k out of pocket.
The danger here is that, with a warning letter in place, you could be in deep doo-doo if you lose another one....but the language also says that the company cant make you pay for it and subject you to disciplinary action, they have to choose one or the other. So if I lost a second one and was facing termination, I might offer to pay for that one to keep my job.