(The following story by Mike Frassinelli appeared on The Star-Ledger website on April 7, 2010.)
NEWARK, N.J. — Tony Araujo couldn’t sleep the night after he watched the contractor burn to death at work.
The New Jersey Transit conductor flagman said he wanted to return immediately to the only kind of work he had known for 21 years, but mental health professionals determined he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and needed time off.
He soon would go through another kind of nightmare, the kind sleep can’t cure.
Araujo’s boss did not take kindly to the determination by the mental health professionals, suspending him without pay and wrongly blaming him for the death of the electrocuted contractor, according to an investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Whistleblower Office.
Araujo was awarded nearly $570,000 in damages today, a record for a case stemming from a 3-year-old federal law designed to break rail management’s culture of retaliation against workers who report injuries or safety violations, his lawyer said.
The OSHA investigation found NJ Transit exhibited “reckless disregard” for the Federal Rail Safety Act and “complete indifference” to the rights of Araujo.
“It was an uphill battle, but today is vindication,” Araujo said.
NJ Transit was given 30 days to file objections and request a hearing before an administrative law judge.
The agency, through spokeswoman Penny Bassett Hackett, released only a 13-word statement: “We are reviewing the findings and are considering all of our appeal options.”
Araujo was deemed unable to work after he was sent for counseling and found to have PTSD from witnessing a 13,000-volt explosion on Feb. 25, 2008, that killed a New Jersey Department of Transportation contractor working in an NJ Transit right-of-way near the Seventh Avenue Bridge in Newark.
Araujo, 40, was working with an outside contracting crew on New Jersey Transit’s Morristown line at the Roseville Interlocking. The linemen, not Araujo, were responsible for monitoring the overhead wires, according to the OSHA Whistleblower Department. Two linemen were disciplined.
Had company officials suspected that Araujo contributed to the accident, they were required by federal law to test him for drugs and alcohol, lawyer Charlie Goetsch said.
They didn’t.
But an NJ Transit superintendent the next day called the Employee Assistance Program to complain about Araujo’s lost-time reportable injury, and soon after filed disciplinary charges claiming that Araujo contributed to the fatal incident by violating electrical operating instructions.
The railroad denied Araujo’s benefits and suspended him without pay for almost a year, causing his credit rating to plummet, his car to be repossessed and the bank to foreclose on his home, Goetsch said.
“I lost it all,” Araujo said. “There’s not much more I could lose.”
Araujo was medically cleared to return to work on Oct. 6, 2008, but wasn’t allowed to return from his suspension until Feb. 20, 2009.
OSHA’s Whistleblower Office found NJ Transit violated the Federal Rail Safety Act and ordered the payment of nearly $570,000 in damages, including punitive damages and damages for ruining Araujo’s credit.
He was to be compensated nearly $500,000 for back pay, lost benefit payments and attorney fees, and $75,000 in punitive damages.
“In the past, railroads were free to discipline employees without having to worry about paying economic damages beyond limited back pay,” Goetsch said. “Those days are now over.”
“This has been the worst two years of my life,” Araujo said. “It’s been very traumatic, and I just want to move forward.”