Rail safety cover-ups probed WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A congressional panel on Oct. 25 began investigating evidence of significant underreporting by Class I railroads of employee injures. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) said he was told by the Federal Railroad Administration's top safety officer that "supervisory pressure on employees to not report injuries is a significant issue" and that the FRA told him it "simply does not have the resources to investigate the extent of the harassment issue." Oberstar said the FRA completed an audit of CSX -- which should be released within a week -- concluding, "The consensus of the investigative team was that certain CSXT officers were creating an atmosphere or culture that tends to have a chilling effect on employee injury illness reporting and which ultimately sends a message to employees that if they report an on-duty injury, they would be subject to adverse consequences." Moreover, said Oberstar, BNSF uses a points system that penalizes employees "whether the injury is the fault of the employee or not" and that when the employee reaches a specific points total, "he or she is automatically targeted with additional inspections and performance checks." That system, Oberstar said, "inhibits employees from seeking medical treatment and filing FRA-required safety reports. "The practical effect of these programs," Oberstar said, "is that they appear to suppress injury reporting, and that they often subject employees to a higher probability of discipline in the future." |