A lawsuit claims that Union Pacific regularly employs private investigators to look into medical leave requests and fires anyone who leaves their home while on leave.
The attorney who filed one of the first lawsuits in a similar case in Texas last month stated that this practice is another example of how railroads force train crews to remain on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week while making them fearful of taking the unpaid leave to which they are entitled under the Family Medical Leave Act.
Union Pacific facing lawsuits from employees
Now that the Texas case is progressing through the courts, attorney Nick Thompson has stated that he plans to investigate the claims of several other UP employees who have contacted him with similar concerns, which could result in additional lawsuits.
Union Pacific, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, claims it did nothing wrong when it fired De’Ron Rutledge because railroad managers believed he was abusing the medical leave rules by repeatedly taking time off while recovering from a work-related back injury.
Robynn Tysver, a spokesperson for UP, stated that the company complies with all Family Medical Leave Act regulations.
The railroads have only started to address this concern in recent months, granting four days of paid sick leave to some of their unions. This would make the current situation much more manageable for everyone involved.
However, the majority of conductors and all locomotive engineers, representing more than half of all rail workers, still do not have sick leave.
Moreover, the schedules of these train crews are the most demanding and unpredictable.
Last fall, the railroad industry was on the verge of a strike due, in large part, to the absence of paid sick leave, but a walkout was averted thanks to congressional intervention.
Struggled last year due to shortages of railroads
If railroads did not have such a severe labor shortage, they might be less likely to enforce medical leave policies so strictly.
As a result of the shortage, railroads have admitted that they have struggled over the past year to deliver all the shipments requested by numerous companies.
Major freight railroads have cut nearly a third of their workforce over the past six years as part of an effort to streamline operations and run fewer, longer trains with fewer employees and fewer locomotives.
Since the apex of their service problems in the spring of last year, railroads have been aggressively hiring, but it has been difficult to find enough workers.
