Consumer Law

Ex-BNSF Railway Worker Files Lawsuit After Being Fired for Testifying

BISMARCK — An ex-BNSF Railway worker claims he was fired because he blew the whistle on emergency brake failures for coal trains in North Dakota and testified that a co-worker was injured on the job due to hazardous conditions.

Michael Fink of Bismarck is asking in a federal lawsuit for back pay, lost wages and benefits, damages for emotional distress, and other relief after the railway company let him go last year. He also wants his job back and up to $250,000 in punitive damages, according to the civil complaint filed Dec. 4 in North Dakota’s U.S. District Court against BNSF.

Fink was fired for dishonesty on April 5, 2019, in reporting how a switch, which allows trains to transfer to another set of rails, was damaged on Feb. 5, 2019, at the Jamestown, N.D., railyard, according to the complaint.

But Fink said he told the truth about the incident: His crew did not back into the switch but that possibly a maintenance crew damaged it before his staff arrived on the scene.

Read the source article at Grand Forks Herald

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