Norfolk Southern Railway Company ordered by U.S. Department of Labor to pay more than $300,000 for Violating Federal Railroad Safety Act. The U.S. Department of Labor has found that, once again, the company has violated the whistleblower protection provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act. An investigation by the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration revealed that the railroad terminated an employee in retaliation for reporting a workplace injury.

The department has ordered the company to pay the affected employee more than $300,000 in damages, including $200,000 in punitive damages, $75,000 in compensatory damages and $25,123.40 in attorney's fees. Additionally, the company must expunge the disciplinary record of the employee as well as post a notice regarding employees whistleblower protection rights under the FRSA and provide training to its employees about these rights. These actions follows several other orders issued by the department to Norfolk Southern Railway Co.

in the past year. OSHA's investigations have found that the company continues to retaliate against workers for reporting work-related injuries, which effectively has created a chilling effect in the railroad industry. The Chattanooga-based employee in this case reported an injury when he hit his hard hat against a horizontal support beam.

After conducting an investigative hearing, the railroad charged the employee with falsifying his injury and subsequently terminated him on Oct. 8, 2010. The employee appealed, and a Public Law Board upheld the railroad's decision while reducing the termination to a suspension with no back pay.

OSHA found that the railroad's investigative hearing was severely flawed and orchestrated to intentionally support management's decision to terminate the employee. Either party to this case can file an appeal to the Labor Department's Office of Administrative Law Judges. OSHA and the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration have signed a memorandum of agreement to facilitate coordination and cooperation between agencies regarding the enforcement of the FRSA's whistleblower provisions.

The act protects railroad employees from retaliation when they report safety violations, or work-related personal injuries or illnesses.