Less than four years after a California train disaster spurred passage of major safety legislation, railroad companies are pushing hard to relax the law’s chief provision.
OSHA has ordered Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific Railroad Co. to immediately reinstate an employee in Idaho who was terminated after reporting a work-related injury.
A spate of train collisions in 2011 -- some of which resulted in fatalities -- have prompted the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to warn the industry to obey speed limits.
Retaliation by the Union Pacific Railroad Company against whistleblowing employees who complained about safety issues is the latest in a series of similar cases involving U.S. railway companies, according to OSHA records.
Norfolk Southern Railway Co. has been ordered by OSHA to pay a former employee $122,199 in compensatory and punitive damages as well as reasonable attorney's fees. The company violated the employee's rights under the whistleblower provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act by terminating the employee for reporting an on-the-job injury in 2009.
