People are terminated from jobs all the time for one reason or another, but that reason isn’t always legal in the eyes of the law. That’s when wrongful termination lawsuits pop up, such as the lawsuit that was just filed against CSX Transportation. For those who don’t know, CSX Transportation supplies rail-based freight transportation throughout the United States and Canada. The lawsuit against the company was filed in the “U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia Huntington Division” on behalf of “46 former railroad workers…for alleged wrongful termination.”
People are terminated from jobs all the time for one reason or another, but that reason isn’t always legal in the eyes of the law. That’s when wrongful termination lawsuits pop up, such as the lawsuit that was just filed against CSX Transportation. For those who don’t know, CSX Transportation supplies rail-based freight transportation throughout the United States and Canada. The lawsuit against the company was filed in the “U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia Huntington Division” on behalf of “46 former railroad workers…for alleged wrongful termination.”
But what happened, exactly? Forty-six employees is a lot of people who claim they were wrongfully let go. Well, according to court documents, the former employees were all fired in 2017 and they “allege CSX refused to allow them to take legitimate medical leaves of absence, accused them of committing insurance fraud, fired them for using their health insurance and violated their rights by exposing their medical records.” On top of all that, the lawsuit accused “CSX of violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the West Virginia Human Relations Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.”
The plaintiffs included in the case are all represented by Morgan & Paul PLLC, as well as “attorneys representing three other firms.” Of the 46 individuals who were fired include “electricians, boilermakers, carmen and several others of various lines of work.” Even the company’s former chief medical officer, Dr. Craig S. Heligman, was fired and is joining in on the lawsuit, as are many other managers and supervisors.
At the moment the lawsuit is seeking “back pay and multiple other damages to be determined in court,” as well as a trial by jury.
As stated before CSX supplies rail-based freight transportation throughout North America. A leader in the industry, the Jacksonville, Florida-based company “operates more than 21,000 miles of track in 23 Eastern states, including West Virginia and Kentucky, and two Canadian provinces.” Just recently the company “hired a new executive vice president of operations, Edmond Harris, to help new CEO James Foote manage the railroad after it’s former CEO Hunter Harrison died in December.”
This isn’t the first time CSX has found itself knee-deep in legal troubles, though. Last year the company was sued for company-wide gender discrimination. In that lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) accused CSX of “violating federal law by implementing a physical abilities test battery that causes a class-wide disparate impact on female workers seeking a range of jobs at CSX.”
One thing is for certain, it will be interesting to see how this case plays out, and whether the court will side with the former employees or CSX.
Sources:
46 former workers file lawsuit against CSX
EEOC Sues CSX Transportation for Company-Wide Sex Discrimination
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