Union Pacific Hearing Testing, Protection Suit Gets Class Status

Union Pacific Railroad Co. must face trial on a classwide basis on claims that policies it implemented for protecting and testing train-crew workers’ hearing violated federal disability bias law, a Nebraska federal judge ruled.

The decision is the latest in a case challenging the railroad’s fitness testing. A separate 7,000-plus member class action over Union Pacific’s fitness-for-duty exams was decertified by the Eighth Circuit in 2020, partly because it included workers in 650 or more unique jobs with various disabilities.

The smaller class suit led by Charles Waldschmidt and the personal representative of Charlie Grigg doesn’t pose the same hurdles ...