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What Makes An Injury Reportable to the FRA?
January 12th, 2014
When a railroad employee is injured at work, the law usually requires the railroad to report that injury to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The rules for reporting are set forth at 49 C.F.R. Section 225.19(d). Each death, injury, or occupa…
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Third Circuit Court of Appeals Interprets FRSA
February 20th, 2013
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s decision in favor of the railroad in a claim brought pursuant to the Federal Rail Safety Act (FRSA). The case, Araujo v. New Jersey Transit Rail Operations, Inc., was decided on February 1…
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Administrative Law Judge Rejects Railroad’s Argument In Case Under FRSA
February 11th, 2013
I previously wrote a post about how railroads can use a system of operational rules testing as a form of harassment and retaliation after workers report safety concerns or injuries on duty. In one such case where those allegations have been made agai…
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Wrongful Death Damages Available Under the FELA
February 7th, 2013
A tragic accident occurred yesterday at the ArcelorMittal steel plant in Cleveland, Ohio when a 50 year old railroad employee was killed after falling from a train car. The incident raises the question of what damages are available to the individual…
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OSHA awards $800,000 in damages against NS for FRSA violation
June 19th, 2012
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced yesterday that it has ordered Norfolk Southern Railway Co. to pay over $800,000 in damages on the claims of three employees who were retaliated against after reporting injuries at work. The…
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Rules Testing as a Form of Harassment
April 11th, 2012
How would you like your supervisor to follow you all day, look over your shoulder at everything you do, and write down every time you make a mistake? This is what railroad employees endure during rules tests on a regular basis. For the vast majority…
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Ohio Overtime laws do not apply to railroad workers
March 1st, 2012
I was recently asked at a union meeting whether any laws in Ohio provide recourse to a railroad worker who was not paid 1 ½ times his regular rate of pay for hours worked in excess of eight hours. The short answer, unfortunately, is no. The reasons,…
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“The FELA is a platypus”
February 28th, 2012
“In the taxonomy of the law, the Federal Employers’ Liability Act…is a platypus. Intended to provide a remedy for injured railroad workers, the FELA ‘hovers ambivalently between workers’ compensation law and the common law of negligence. It…
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Why I Practice Railroad Law
October 26th, 2011
When I tell people that I specialize in railroad law, they inevitably wonder two things. What is railroad law? I imagine people thinking that I have Sir Topham Hatt as a client and we discuss the legality of certain train moves by Thomas and Percy on…
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Weingarten Rights do not apply to railroad employees
October 10th, 2011
Employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) have a right to have a union representative or co-worker present during an investigatory interview with management when the employee reasonably believes that the interview might result in d…
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Categories: Rail Law Blog