Sick-Day Change Is Coming to a Rail Industry Resistant to It (1)

When railroad employees get sick, they’re usually faced with a tough choice: use one of their limited personal days, head into work anyway or, if neither of those is an option, risk their job by staying home.

That may soon change.

Railroads including Union Pacific Corp., Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX Corp.are weighing offering paid sick days — or are already doing so — along with schedule changes and other steps to improve employees’ work-life balance. The sweeping efforts, coming alongside a revised union contract that raised pay, aim to improve worker relations in an industry that has ...