Stop Shooting the Rail Safety Messengers!

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Charlie Goetsch

The truth is always refreshing, especially when it comes from an unexpected source. Veteran rail manager David L. Gunn was hired by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) Board of Directors to tell them how to improve safety on the DC subway system. His conclusion? "End the 'shoot the messenger' culture at all levels of the organization" and thereby "Create a workplace where safety is openly discussed, problems are reported and solved, and all employees, supervisors, and managers know they can ask for help without fear." Here is the Press Release.

Wow. Ending the "shoot the messenger" culture is precisely why Congress recently passed the NTSSA and FRSA  laws, to ensure that subway and rail workers who raise safety concerns are protected from retaliation.

And now enlightened rail managers are admitting the truth: management's blame the messenger mentality not only discourages employees from raising safety concerns, it actually perpetuates the systemic problems that cause injuries in the first place. So the way to increase rail safety is not to shoot the employee who reports an injury or hazard, but to focus on correcting the root causes of the problem. And any rail managers who persist in their old ways now will be held accountable under the NTSSA and FRSA.

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PATH Hit With FRSA Punitive Damages

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Charlie Goetsch

 

The first Federal Rail Safety Act complaint against the Port Authority Trans-Hudson railroad has resulted in an award of punitive damages. The fact pattern is familiar to any railroad worker.

Laura, a Signal Tester, was injured on duty due to defective equipment, and duly reported her injury. But instead of using the incident as an opportunity to identify and correct the root cause of the safety hazard (namely, why the railroad allowed the defective equipment to remain in use), PATH's Superintendent sent her a disciplinary charge letter alleging the injury was solely her fault. A typical "blame the victim and ignore the systemic cause" reaction by rail management that happens every day on railroads across the nation, and is a major reason why safety hazards persist.

But things have changed. The FRSA is in effect now, and with my help Laura stood up for her FRSA right to be protected from such retaliatory action. OSHA conducted a thorough investigation, and found that no one else was charged with any safety violations for allowing the defective equipment to remain in use, and that the Railroad could have investigated the circumstances of the incident without ordering the injured employee to face a disciplinary hearing. OSHA concluded that if Laura had not reported an injury, no charge letter would have been sent.

What is interesting here is that Laura did not actually attend any disciplinary hearing or suffer any discipline. She just received an initial charge letter. And OSHA ruled such conduct is a violation of the FRSA that must be remedied. To make Laura whole, OSHA ordered PATH to expunge her disciplinary records and pay punitive damages and attorney fees. Of particular interest is the empowering NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES the Railroad must post on all of its bulletin boards.

So here's to Laura! By standing up for her FRSA rights she is at the forefront of a grass roots movement of workers acting to correct the imbalance of power between rail labor and management.

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