Federal Rail Safety Act

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Another railroad has been hit with Federal Rail Safety Act punitive damages for disciplining injured employees based on vague safety rules. This time it’s the Burlington Northern Railroad, who charged a conductor with being "careless of the safety of yourself and others" after he reported an injury. At the disciplinary trial, the charging officer "testified…

This entry honors the memory of Roger M. Lenfest, Jr., a courageous rail labor leader who has left us too soon. Roger’s railroad career spanned 40 years, most recently as a United Transportation Union General Chairman representing conductors on various carriers. But Roger’s defining moment as a union rep came in 1985, when he was…

Here’s the latest judicial decision rejecting the bogus "election of remedies" defense railroads continue to raise in Federal Rail Safety Act cases. This one is especially sweet in that it allows a worker to continue her frontal attack against Norfolk Southern Railway’s notorious practice of firing employees who report on duty injuries.

The facts are…

OSHA has blown the whistle on Norfolk Southern Railway Company’s practice of disciplining injured workers based on bogus “falsification” charges. From now on, Norfolk Southern’s “falsification” strategy will cost it dearly.

In order to discourage the reporting of injuries, Norfolk Southern routinely charges injured employees with “falsifying” the injury. That is what happened to Conductor…

After a supervisor for the Utah Transit Authority was fired for raising safety concerns, OSHA’s Whistleblower Office ordered him reinstated with over $150,000 in make whole economic damages.  In refusing to dismiss that case, an ALJ has ruled that the FRSA  protects any employee who raises safety concerns, even supervisors on an intrastate commuter railroad…