Could you face opposition when reporting your railroad injury?

If you suffer an injury while working on the railroads, the logical thing to do is to report it to your supervisor. They should then coordinate with anyone in the company they need to, so that you can get the treatment and time off to recover that you need.

A report by ProPublica shows that some supervisors don’t do that, however. 

Protecting the employer

Some supervisors prioritize protecting their railroad employers over helping injured workers get the help they need. Railroad employees who are injured on the job don’t have the right to claim workers’ compensation, which is a no-fault insurance. Instead, under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA), they have the right to file for compensation against their employer. To do this, they’ll need to prove that the employer was negligent.

If a supervisor can prevent the filing from happening or cause the employee’s claim of negligence to fail, then their employer will likely see them as doing a good job. Perhaps they’ll even receive a financial incentive to limit the number of claims against the employer.

The report found that supervisors used a variety of tactics to suppress claims.  These include paying workers not to claim, not taking injured workers to a hospital and pressuring doctors to alter the injured worker’s discharge records. Other tactics include hiding evidence that would support the workers’ claim or firing those who seek to file a claim. In other cases, the culture of fear was so great that the supervisors no longer needed to say or do anything. Workers were already too fearful of what would happen if they filed a claim to go ahead.

Clearly, such activities are not legal, but that does not mean they are not still happening. If you are injured while working on the railroads, legal guidance may be necessary to protect your rights to compensation.