Railroad Retaliated By Firing Workers Reporting Injuries: OSHA

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is ordering railroad operator Norfolk Southern to pay more than $800,000 for firing a South Carolina worker and two others after they reported injuries on the job.

Safety officials said that the incidents are part of a larger pattern in which the Norfolk, Va.-based company retaliates against employees for reporting work-related injuries, creating a chilling effect in the railroad industry.

The violations of federal whistleblower laws involved a laborer in Greenville, S.C., an engineer in Louisville, Ky., and a railroad conductor based in Harrisburg, Pa. Payments include back pay, compensatory damages and about $525,000 in punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

Norfolk Southern spokesman Robin Chapman said the company plans to appeal all three administrative rulings.

Latest Comments

• June 21, 2012 at 4:47 pm

  R says:

  There is clear federal and state law on this issue. Also, given the OSHA track record on these cases, I suspect it was fairly blatant and obvious from the record. The DOL Insp... read more
• June 20, 2012 at 5:48 pm

  Safety Guy says:

  This is part of a larger effort by OSHA to penalize employers for implementing safety incentive plans that might discourage the reporting injuries and who discipline employee... read more
• June 20, 2012 at 3:39 pm

  Lynda says:

  Good risk management is understandable; terminating an employee as a first step in handling risk is not. Of course, without more data, there is really no way to judge the mer... read more