49 U.S.C. § 22404 — Employee protection

(a) General. This law requires fair arrangements to protect employees who might be affected by actions taken because of assistance approved under this chapter. Railroads and their employees' representatives had to negotiate and sign an agreement setting up these protections within 120 days of February 5, 1976. If they didn't reach an agreement by then, the Secretary of Labor had to set the protective rules instead, within 150 days of that date. (b) Terms. These protections apply to any employee who had an employment relationship with a railroad on the date that railroad first applied for financial assistance under this chapter. The arrangements must include rules for negotiating and signing agreements about exactly how the protections apply, including what notice must be given. Those agreements must be signed before any work funded by the assistance begins. If the parties can't agree within 30 days after an application is approved, either side can take the dispute to final and binding arbitration, and the arbitrator must decide within 30 days after that. An arbitration decision cannot weaken the protections already set up under this section — it is final and binding, and it becomes part of the agreement. The protections must also cover four specific things. (1) Preserving employees' pay (including future general raises, vacation pay, and monthly compensation guarantees), rights, privileges, and benefits — like pensions, hospitalization, and vacation — under their existing union contracts or otherwise, for as long as other employees at that railroad keep getting those same benefits. (2) Final and binding arbitration for any dispute the parties can't settle themselves about interpreting, applying, or enforcing the protective arrangements. (3) If an employee can't get another job at the railroad using their seniority because of actions taken with this chapter's financial assistance, the railroad must offer them a comparable job, with retraining if needed, as long as that doesn't break any existing collective bargaining agreement. (4) These protections do not apply to employees who benefit only because of the work this chapter's funding paid for — in other words, someone who only gains from the project isn't covered. (c) Subcontracting. Whatever protective arrangements get negotiated by the parties or set by the Secretary of Labor must also include rules regulating how railroads subcontract out work paid for by this chapter's funding.