OSHA: Union Pacific must reinstate worker who reported injuries suffered on job

[Omaha Steve]

See: Reflections on OSHA’s History: https://www.osha.gov/history/OSHA_HISTORY_3360s.pdf

It took progressives and labor a century to provide this protection for workers.

OS


OSHA: Union Pacific must reinstate worker who reported injuries suffered on job

http://www.omaha.com/article/20140423/MONEY/140429451/1707#osha-union-pacific-must-reinstate-worker-who-reported-injuries-suffered-on-job

By Russell Hubbard / World-Herald staff writer PUBLISHED WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2014 AT 3:22 PM

Union Pacific Corp. has been ordered to reinstate a terminated worker who filed a workplace-injury report after the chair he was sitting in collapsed at the railroad's North Platte terminal.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in a statement Wednesday that Union Pacific must also pay the unnamed employee $10,000 in compensatory damages and $75,000 in punitive damages, plus attorney's fees.

The Omaha-based freight railroad, employer of about 7,900 people in the state, was found by OSHA to have fired the worker in violation of whistleblower protection laws after he reported injuries suffered during the October 2012 chair collapse.

Union Pacific was also ordered to remove disciplinary notations from the employee's record and provide whistleblower rights information to employees. Back wages are not part of the deal, OSHA said.

FULL story at link.