The Source for Railroad Injuries & Whistleblower Protection
Add this to the growing chorus of judicial voices shouting down the bogus "election of remedies" defense raised by railroads. In a cogent decision, Judge Berlin confirms that Federal Rail Safety Act complaints are independent of Railway Labor Act disciplinary proceedings and cannot be derailed by a RLA award reinstating an employee with back pay.
Here are the facts.
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…
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…
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…
OSHA’s Whistleblower Office has slammed Metro North Railroad with punitive damages for using a Federal Rail Safety Act complaint as a basis for disciplining a worker. After a laborer at Metro North’s New Haven Shop filed a FRSA complaint, the Railroad charged the worker with “Conduct unbecoming a Metro-North employee in that you filed a…
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:
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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…
Federal Rail Safety Act Section 20109(c)(1) prohibits railroads from "deny[ing], delay[ing] or interfer[ing] with the medical or first aid treatment of an employee who is injured during the course of employment." In the first case to interpret the meaning of (c)(1), OSHA took the position the scope of that prohibition goes beyond initial medical treatment.
Another Judge has ruled that the Railway Labor Act does not preclude Federal Rail Safety Act actions. To quote from the second post-trial ALJ FRSA decision to be handed down:
The reach of the RLA is limited to disputes involving the interpretation or application of existing labor agreements. It does not address allegations or
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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"…