BNSF Faces Trial Over Claims Inspector Fired for Safety Reports

BNSF Railway Co. faces trial in a former track inspector’s suit alleging he was fired for reporting too many track defects, a federal court in Minnesota said.

A jury could conclude BNSF’s stated reason of time theft was a pretext and that Don Sanders was fired in retaliation for whistle-blowing, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota said.

Division engineer Keith Jones, during several conversations with Sanders in late 2015, voiced displeasure with Sanders’s work, including “slow orders” requiring trains to move at a lower speed over a particular track section, the court said. Sanders says he was ...