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Metro-North Fined in Injured Harmon Worker Suit

CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – Metro-North Railroad will have to pay more than $18,000 after the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined the railroad forced an injured worker at the Harmon Diesel Shop in Croton to go back to work.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, of which the railroad is part, has 30 days to appeal the ruling, which was brought under part of the Federal Railroad Safety Act. Officials at the MTA said a decision has not been made as to whether the ruling will be appealed and declined to comment.

"Metro-North's actions in this case are unacceptable and send a message of intimidation to its workforce," said Robert Kulick, OSHA's regional administrator in New York, in a press release. "Railroad employees must be free to report injuries without fear that their employers will harass them, ignore medical instructions or force them to work under conditions that could impair the healing process or cause more harm."

According to a March 13 release from OSHA, a laborer at the Harmon Diesel Shop injured his finger while on the job on June 26, 2009 and reported it to management, who first attempted to dissuade him from seeking medical treatment.

The OSHA release says the worker received sutures at a nearby hospital where he was instructed not to use his hand until the sutures healed and to keep the hand clean and dry. The railroad's occupational health service determined that the injury disqualified the worker from duty, but the facilities director of the diesel shop persuaded the health service to change the worker's status to restricted duty.

The worker's personal physician excused him from work until the sutures were removed and supplied written notice that he should not lift heavy objects or immerse his hands in chemicals, actions he performed in the normal course of his duties, according to OSHA. In spite of these instructions and the employee's restricted work status, management ordered him back to work and required him to perform these duties, said the release.

OSHA ordered Metro-North to pay $10,000 in punitive damages to the worker and $8,830 in attorney's fees and to expunge any adverse references relating to the employee's exercise of his FRSA rights from his personnel, safety and department files. Metro-North also must post an OSHA notice for employees in the Harmon Diesel Shop and on its internal website and provide all diesel shop employees with information on employee protections for reporting work-related injuries.

As part of OSHA’s enforcement of whistleblower statutes, names of those involved in whistleblowers actions are not released.

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