The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has clarified that rail carrier management must provide sanitary bathroom options to track employees and/or roadway maintenance groups working along railroad tracks.

This official interpretation means that management must provide a port-a-john at long-duration work sites or set aside a vehicle for the sole purpose of transportation to a nearby restroom.

This is an important and long sought interpretation of an existing OSHA requirement (29 CFR 1910.141 that was held up by a bureaucratic question of which agency exercised statutory authority – OSHA or the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

Since the FRA has no regulations regarding sanitation requirements for railroad track employees, OSHA Acting Director of Enforcement Scott C. Ketcham declared OSHA within its scope to enforce its sanitation standards and regulations to rail workers.

“Thanks to the hard work and tireless dedication of BMWED Director of Safety Roy Morrison, we have secured the basic right to a clean and sanitary restroom facility at all job sites for our membership,” BMWED President Tony D. Cardwell said. “This decision is a direct result of Brother Morrison sticking up for our members and continuing to push OSHA to consider the rule and its application to the rail industry. He cut through the red tape and was relentless in advocating for BMWED members and their rights on the job. For years the railroads have ignored common decency to extend bathroom facilities to their employees, but we have now obtained the basic and needed dignity of a clean restroom on the jobsite. This is a sterling example of what can happen by being a Union employee and exercising solidarity around an issue.”

In addition, this OSHA interpretation includes the right to stop travel to and from the jobsite to use proper restroom facilities should they be needed without harassment or intimidation from a supervisor.

OSHA has stated that they will update internal training of their state and federal inspectors so that they are educated on this important interpretation and know to look for violations should they occur.