Our firm has discussed several troubling episodes recently involving railroad companies that have used wrongfully retaliated against or terminated employees for raising safety concerns. Thankfully, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has caught on to the companies’ misbehavior and has handed down several important rulings against railroad companies over the last few months.
The railroad company, known as Metra, is accused of firing a worker for raising a safety issue. OSHA’s investigation found that Metra changed the worker’s hours and ultimately eliminated his position after he filed a safety complaint with the Secretary of Labor. The worker, a signalman, had spent 22 years with Metra before having his hours cut and his job taken from him. The retaliation was all because the signalman reported that certain signal routes had not been tested properly.
Once Metra became aware of his complaint, the man’s superiors retaliated against him by reducing his ability to work and claim overtime pay and eventually eliminated his job entirely. OSHA’s investigation revealed that the man’s decision to report the safety issue was the sole basis for the retaliatory actions by Metra and that Metra never even bothered to invent a pretext for its actions.
OSHA concluded its report by ordering Metra to pay the signalman nearly $40,000 in lost overtime as well as interest, compensatory damages and attorney’s fees. A press release by OSHA underlined the fact that railroads do not have the right to retaliate against employees whose only mistake was in reporting dangerous safety issues.
Such retaliatory behavior makes it less likely that employees will report potential hazards in the future. This raises concerns not only about worker safety, but, given that Metra is a major metropolitan commercial carrier, also raises concerns about passenger safety. OSHA should be congratulated for seriously enforcing the Railroad Safety Act and pushing back against employers that wrongfully terminate quality workers.
About the Editors: The Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton & Favaloro personal injury law firm, which has offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as pro bono services.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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