OSHA rules UP illegally disciplined worker for reporting injury

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said a “culture of retaliation” against whistleblowers is pervasive at Union Pacific Railroad.    The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has ordered Union Pacific Railroad to pay $350,000 in punitive and compensatory damages and attorney fees to a locomotive engineer who allegedly was disciplined for reporting workplace injuries and seeking medical attention. It is the third time since 2011 that the railroad has violated whistleblower provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act at its yard in North Platte, Neb., OSHA said in a news release.
   The workplace safety agency determined that UP retaliated against the 35-year-old employee after he reported injuries sustained in a December 2013 collision and received medical attention. The company has been ordered to remove disciplinary information from the employee’s personnel record and provide information about whistleblower rights to all its employees. 
   Prior to this incident the employee had never been disciplined.
   “It is disheartening that this employee, a loyal railroad worker for 35 years, faced disciplinary action because he sought needed medical attention for a work-related injury. Union Pacific’s actions and the repeated complaints filed by their employees are indicative of a culture that doesn’t show that same loyalty to their workers or concern for their safety,” said Marcia P. Drumm, OSHA’s regional administrator in Kansas City, Mo. “Whistleblower protections play an important role in keeping workplaces safe. It is not only illegal to discipline an employee for reporting an injury and seeking medical attention, it puts everyone at risk.”
   Since 2001, UP has faced more than 200 whistleblower complaints nationwide, according to OSHA.
   UP spokesman Aaron Hunt said in an e-mailed statement, “Union Pacific strongly disagrees with OSHA’s findings in this case. We will appeal.”
   The UP has 47,000 employees.
   Disciplining workers for reporting unsafe conditions or injuries has been a frequent problem in the railroad industry, according to OSHA and railroad unions. OSHA received more than 1,200 whistleblower complaints by railroad workers between 2007 and 2012.
   In January 2013, UP’s western competitor, BNSF Railway signed an accord with OSHA under which it voluntarily revised several personnel policies that OSHA alleged violated whistleblower provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act and dissuaded workers from reporting on-the-job injuries. 
   BNSF made settlement officers in 36 cases to employees who filed whistleblower complaints with OSHA alleging they were harmed by the company’s policies after reporting injuries.
   BNSF also reduced the probations of 136 employees who were serving longer probations because they had been injured on-the-job, and eliminated a policy that assigned points to employees who sustained work-related injuries. The company also dropped a requirement that injured workers go through safety counseling and prescribed operations testing. Other terms of the accord include higher-level management review for assessing safety demerits to an employee that is injured while on duty, and training managers on workers’ rights under the Federal Railroad Safety Act.