Discipline Alert (FRA Decertifiable Event)

 While switching cars in a yard, two employees using RCO’s were approached by three company officers (One officer was from Omaha).  After the three officers introduced themselves they observed that one of the employees did not have a bottom safety clip attached to the RCO box and he was immediately pulled out of service for disabling the “Man Down” feature.   They then observed by grabbing and pulling the RCO Box away from the second employee’s body that the bottom straps were loose and immediately pulled him out of service for having the bottom safety clips not holding control box tight, therefore disabling the “Man Down” feature.

 The charges were as follows: In accordance with FRA 49 CFR, Part 240, they were hereby notified of the revocation of there certification.  This action was taken as a result of: 240.117(e) (5) Tampering with locomotive mounted safety devices, or knowingly operating or permitting to be operated a train with an unauthorized disabled safety device in the controlling locomotive.

 Union Pacific’s and the FRA’s stand on this issue is as follows:

 The Federal Regulations that cover an employee operating as a remote control operator (RCO) or as an engineer are 49 CFR Part 240.  When an employee completes training and passes all tests they receive a certificate enabling them to operate the equipment without an instructor present.  The regulations identify 6 items that can cause an RCO or an engineer to have their certificate revoked.  (Commonly called decertification but a misnomer)  One of them reads: 

240.117(e)(5) "Failure to comply with prohibitions against tampering with locomotive mounted safety devices, or knowingly operating or permitting to be operated a train with an unauthorized disabled safety device in the controlling locomotive (See 49 CFR part 218, subpart D and Appendix C to part 218)" 

When Remote Control was approved we met with senior FRA officials to go over the safety issues involved.  They advised that the RCT was considered part of the locomotive and its safety devices were covered under this regulation.  We specifically discussed the "man down" safety feature and did tests that indicated that if the RCT was not clipped to all four spots on the vest and the bottom two were left undone then it could swing free at the bottom when someone leaned over and thus the man down feature would not always activate.  In addition the swinging of the RCT could create other safety issues. The FRA advised that not hooking up all four clips would be considered tampering under this rule and as such we have taught in our classes to not unclip the bottom clips. 

As to not citing rules:  There are two issues, one is company discipline and the other is the FRA revocation.  The regulations allow the Carrier to handle revocation and discipline jointly in a hearing but separate findings are to be issued.  We also can just do a revocation and not do discipline.

For the revocation part we do not cite company rules but cite the FRA regulation because that is what governs.  If an employee appeals to the LERB then all parties go by the federal regulations in the handling of the case.  

William S. Hinckley