It isn’t like we haven’t all heard from our elders how we need more sleep. And our significant others have politely tried to tell us how haggard we look. We have noticed our short tempers, faulty memory and absent-mindedness when tired. The truth is poor sleep habits are the norm today. But on the railroad it isn’t just making people cranky, it’s setting the table for dangerous work habits.
Topics: Railroad safety issues, whistleblower, reporting safety concerns
Was it the promise of better pay? Maybe it's because you thought you would have better conditions sitting inside of the cab? Or maybe it is the cool factor of being in control of a multi-ton behemoth.
Topics: Railroad safety issues, reporting safety concerns, Engineers
Here is the face of MNRR’s continuing safety initiative. His name is Justin Vonashek. He will start on Jan. 4, 2016 as vice president of System Safety. Will he able to win over the trust of the rank and file track level workers? That remains to be seen, but a lack of on track experience isn’t a good sign, despite his transit accolades.
Topics: Railroad safety issues, reporting safety concerns, Metro North
Topics: Passenger railroad injuries, Railroad safety issues, commuter, reporting safety concerns, Train accidents, injured passengers, NTSB, amtrak
Railroad workers' rights took a hit this week when a federal appellate court reversed the decision of the Administrative Review Board in Bala vs PATH. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, reversed the ARB decision, which protected a workers right to follow doctors's orders. This was one of the 13 ways of triggering the Whistleblower protections of the Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA). You can download the decision here.
Bala vs PATH was the 2013 decision that prevented a carrier from disciplining an employee who was following doctors orders, regardless of whether the underlying condition was work related or not.
The reversal means that in those courts within the Third Circuit, only a doctor note pertaining to an on the job injury gives protection to the employee.
Concussion at home when something falls from the garage shelf, making you dizzy? Not excused.
Stomach bug has you throwing up? Not excused.
These absences can still be counted for purposes of attendance policies. This means that workers can be disciplined for absences when they follow a doctor's order not to return to work. This will have long term ramifications as well as immediate.
Topics: FAQs on the job injuries, Rights of Railroad workers, whistleblower, reporting safety concerns, how much is my case worth?
In my last blog about the everyday dangers railroad workers face on the job, I shared nine photos of on-the-job hazards that led to injuries for my clients. Unfortunately for employees, it wasn't hard to dig up a bunch more.
Each of these photos represents a failure by the railroad to ensure a safe work environment for its workers. That's eight instances where a carrier negligence violated FELA, the law that protects rail workers.
See if you can spot the safety hazards in each of these pictures. I bet you encountered some of them on your last shift.
Topics: FAQs on the job injuries, Railroad safety issues, FELA recovery, reporting safety concerns, FELA injury
Have you been on the railroad over five years?
Then you are most likely numb. Not from winter weather in early November, but to the railroad safety hazards around you daily. That is both dangerous and avoidable.
Becoming desensitized to the dangers of train work makes you take unnecessary risks. Instead of voicing a concern, and possibly incurring the wrath of a general foreman, you shrug it off as something you've done hundreds of times before without incident. But if nine out of 10 people walk across the thin ice without falling through, and only the last does, does that mean the ice was safe? Of course not. It means the first nine got lucky. And so it is with you.
In this post we'll use photos to highlight common safety hazards workers face everyday.
Topics: Rights of Railroad workers, Railroad safety issues, whistleblower, reporting safety concerns
Portland, Maine -- A New England railroad worker was awarded $400,000 in June when a federal jury ruled that the railroad had fired him illegally after he voiced safety concerns at a jobsite.
Topics: whistleblower, compensatory damages, punitive damages, reporting safety concerns
