After being ordered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to pay more than $633,000 for three alleged violations of the Federal Railroad Safety Act or FRSA, Union Pacific Railroad has issued a statement about the last violation.

    Last Thursday OSHA ordered Union Pacific to pay more than $309,000 in back wages, benefits, damages and reasonable attorney’s fees to a conductor after determining the railroad had retaliated because the conductor reported a co-worker’s work-related injury. The injury reportedly took place in 2009.

    “Union Pacific is aware of OSHA’s findings related to the 2009 case of a Union Pacific employee’s termination,” said Aaron Hunt, Director of Corporate Relations and Media for UPRR’s western region. “The employee was terminated for violation of an important safety rule. We plan to appeal and aggressively defend the action Union Pacific took to protect our employees, our customers and the communities where we operate.”

    According to the OSHA investigation of the 2009 incident, a train engineer banged his elbow against a steel armrest that was missing padding while on a run between Idaho and Wyoming. The conductor notified his employer that the armrest was defective and that its hazardous condition caused a fellow employee to be injured.

    The railroad fired the conductor.

    Union Pacific made no mention of the other two OSHA orders alleging retaliation against employees and ordering the railroad to pay.

    In March 2012, OSHA ordered Union Pacific to pay $20,000 in punitive damages, $3,500 in compensatory damages for emotional distress and $1,323 in attorney’s fees to an engineer at the railroad’s Pocatello facility who was allegedly threatened when he sought medical help during a run between Pocatello and Wyoming.

    And in December 2011, OSHA ordered UPRR to immediately reinstate an employee in Idaho who was terminated after reporting a work-related injury. OSHA also has ordered the company to pay that employee more than $300,000 in back wages, compensatory damages, attorney’s fees and punitive damages.

    OSHA enforces the whistle-blower provisions of the FRSA and 21 other statutes protecting employees who report violations of various airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health care reform, nuclear, pipeline, worker safety, public transportation agency, maritime and securities laws.

    These laws specifically prohibit employers from retaliating against employees who raise various protected concerns or provide protected information to the employer or to the government, according to OSHA.