Railroad Retirement Board Disability Examiner Training

 Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Labor Member of the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) requested District Lodge 19 to develop a Power Point Presentation of the work and tasks that Railroad Machinists do in the performance of their duties. This was an effort to satisfy the Inspector General’s Office and their determination to reduce the approval rate of Occupational Disability.

The first phase of this training involved the creation of a PowerPoint presentation. District Lodge 19 Educator, Andrew Sandberg with the help of General Chairman Josh Hartford worked on gathering photos and the data needed for the content. They then developed a very good-looking Power Point to use in their presentation.

Phase two on October 17, 2017 involved a trip by Brother Sandberg to the RRB Headquarters and presenting it to the Labor Members office, adjustments were made using their comments at this point.  Next on March 21, 2018, a meeting was held with the Management and Labor Members offices back in Chicago where Brother Sandberg presented it a second time and received additional input for final changes.

Lastly, on April 11 and 12th, 2018 Brother Sandberg presented his presentation to the Disability Examiners. On April 11th APDGC Sandberg and RRB Examiners toured the CN Woodcrest Shop where the Examiners were able to see many locomotives and operations such as engine repairs and change outs. On April 12th Brother Sandberg trained seventy (70) Examiners at the RRB Headquarters with members of several Carrier’s management (attorneys) in attendance to defend each Carrier’s practices.

 “I feel that this training will work in opposite of the Inspector General’s idea, none of the Examiners had any knowledge of what Railroad Machinists and Roadway Machinists do. Now that they know, it should be much easier for our Members to qualify for disabilities.”  Said Brother Sandberg.

A very important thing our members must know is that they should tell the RRB (on their disability application) in detail about the work they do. This is because the job descriptions from each Carrier can no longer be used by the RRB to qualify. The determination only goes by the tasks that our Member states that he or she currently does at work, this can be the whole job description, but they need to say and write it. 

This was a worthwhile endeavor for the Districts Membership. The RRB believes that they will ask us to come back in two years to train new Examiners.

Click here to see the Power Point presentation made to the RRB Disability Examiners