Bus and Rail Operators

Reported assaults on transit workers rose more than 232% from 2014 to 2024, according to the Amalgamated Transit Union’s reading of a Federal Transit Administration report — partly because federal reporting rules widened.

California responded with AB 394, signed on October 1, 2025 and in effect since January 1, 2026. It extends the transit battery law to every employee and contractor of a public transportation provider, not just operators — where the penalty is up to $10,000 and/or up to one year in county jail, or up to three years in state prison if the victim is injured — and confirms that joint powers authorities and transit operators may seek workplace violence restraining orders.

What that means for your claim. An assault at work is a compensable injury — and it opens something most injured workers cannot access.

For injuries on or after January 1, 2013, the law bars increasing a rating for “sleep dysfunction, sexual dysfunction, or psychiatric disorder” arising out of a physical injury. § 4660.1(c)(2)(A) excepts injury from “being a victim of a violent act or direct exposure to a significant violent act.”

An operator who is physically attacked may fall within that exception — not every incident qualifies; the Appeals Board looks at how forceful or threatening the act was — and the psychiatric consequences of being attacked in a sealed metal box you cannot leave are usually the more lasting injury.

And the causation standard drops. A psychiatric claim ordinarily requires showing employment events were predominant as to all causes combined. For a violent act victim, the law requires only “a substantial cause — at least 35 to 40 percent of the causation from all sources combined.”

Two things to do immediately after an assault: report it in writing and file a police report, and ask your employer for the Violent Incident Log.

Since July 1, 2024, the law requires nearly every California employer to maintain a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan and a Violent Incident Log recording the date, time, location, type of violence, and consequences of each incident — and to make those records available to employees and their representatives.

A documented history of assaults on your route or line, with nothing done about it, is the core of a § 4553 serious and willfulSerious and willful +50%, and uninsurable, so the employer pays personally. 12 months. misconduct petition — one-half more, paid by the employer directly. Twelve-month deadline. How.

More on assault claims. · Psychiatric injury claims.

Many transit operators work for public agencies, which means a retirement system disability process runs alongside the workers’ compensation claim — on a different standard, decided by different people, using reports written for the other proceeding.

Section 4850 generally does not apply to transit operators; it covers the listed public safety classifications. How the public employee systems interact.