Talk about timing. I was on trial in federal court last week in a FELA injury case. The Railroad, no doubt hoping the U.S. Supreme Court would eliminate the FELA’s long standing "even to the slightest degree" causation standard and replace it with the less favorable "proximate cause," had made a low ball offer and asked the
FELA
FRSA’s Power of Preliminary Reinstatement
By Charlie Goetsch on
The Union Pacific Railroad is about to learn the hard way that arrogance is not a defense to the Federal Rail Safety Act.
The FRSA gives OSHA the power to order the “preliminary reinstatement” of an employee with full back pay. The reinstatement goes into immediate effect even if the railroad objects…
Norfolk Southern Hit With FRSA Damages
By Charlie Goetsch on
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…
U.S. Supreme Court FELA Oral Argument
By Charlie Goetsch on
Posted in Federal Employers Liability Act
The Federal Employers Liability Act is the law that protects rail workers who are injured or killed on the job. The most important FELA case to reach the United States Supreme Court in the last 50 years was argued this morning. At stake is whether the FELA’s long recognized standard of relaxed causation—namely, that a…
BNSF Railway Hit With FRSA Punitive Damages
Here is a classic example of how the Federal Rail Safety Act is correcting rail management’s reflexive "blame the injured worker" mentality. The Railroad failed to provide the proper tool to do the task in question. So the worker used whatever was at hand to complete the task, just as many other workers had done…
FRSA Also Protects Co-Workers
By Charlie Goetsch on
The act of filing a Federal Rail Safety Act complaint with OSHA is itself a protected activity that cannot in any way be used against the employee. But co-workers are protected as well. Any co-worker who talks to an OSHA Whistleblower investigator or who cooperates with the OSHA FRSA investigation gains protection going forward from…
Blueprint For FRSA Punitive Damages
By Charlie Goetsch on
Case law is beginning to clarify punitive damages under the Federal Rail Safety Act. Such damages are based on a railroad’s callous indifference toward the FRSA rights of its employees. Here is some conduct justifying the imposition of FRSA punitive damages:
- discouraging employees from filing injury reports or raising safety concerns
- targeting for closer
…
Warning: FRSA Confidentiality Clauses Unethical
By Charlie Goetsch on
OSHA’s Whistleblower Office will never approve a Federal Rail Safety Act settlement that includes confidentiality. Why? Because the FRSA is supposed to remedy the chilling effects of retaliatory actions, not lock them in. And in the railroad grapevine, no retaliatory action goes unnoticed. When employees see a co-worker hammered after raising safety, injury, or fraud…
Another Judge Rejects Rail Management’s Bogus FRSA Defense
By Charlie Goetsch on
Railroads are losing their campaign to gut the Federal Rail Safety Act by claiming that the Railway Labor Act precludes rail workers from invoking FRSA protection. In a resounding well-reasoned decision, Administrative Law Judge Richard A. Morgan explains that Congress enacted the FRSA "to allow employees to attempt to vindicate their rights using multiple means"…
$1.1 Million FELA Settlement Vindicates Burned Metro North Worker
By Charlie Goetsch on
Posted in Federal Employers Liability Act
Teddy Roosevelt would be proud. 102 years after he signed the original rail safety statute into law, the Federal Employers Liability Act is still doing its job: exposing the unsafe practices of railroads and holding railroads accountable for the employee injuries that result.
The sad truth is, rail managers habitually ignore their own responsibility for…