By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) - The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has ordered Norfolk Southern Railway Co to pay $1.1 million to three employees, finding the company retaliated against them after they reported injuries.

The agency said on Thursday it conducted two investigations and found the company violated Federal Railroad Safety Act whistle-blower regulations when it fired the three employees.

The ruling comes after a series of other orders against Norfolk Southern in the past two years, the agency said.

"The company continues to retaliate against employees for reporting work-related injuries, and these actions have effectively created a chilling effect in the railroad industry," OSHA said in a statement.

Railroad company officials said Friday they will appeal the decisions to an administrative law judge.

Robin Chapman, a company representative, said the decisions were based on a "flawed, one-sided procedure in which the railroad was not permitted to question the employees under oath or cross-examine witnesses."

Chapman added the railroad company was in the midst of discussing mediation and attempting to reach a voluntary resolution with the employees when OSHA made its rulings.

In one of the investigations, OSHA found a worker was wrongfully terminated for reporting an injury. The worker, a crane operator in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was fired in August 2010 after he reported an injury while on the job, OSHA said.

He was injured when a sliver of metal landed in his eye and his job was terminated by the company after it accused him of making a false statement regarding his injury, according to the agency.

The railroad was ordered to pay the crane operator $438,000 in punitive damages, back wages, benefits and out-of-pocket costs.

It was also ordered to reinstate him to the proper seniority level, with vacation and sick days that he would otherwise have earned.

Another OSHA investigation found that two employees were terminated after they reported injuries to management.

The two workers, a welder and the welder's assistant in western Pennsylvania, lost their jobs after the rail company concluded they falsely reported injuries suffered in a traffic accident, according to the agency.

OSHA ordered Norfolk Southern to pay the pair $684,000 in punitive damages, lost wages, benefits and out-of-pocket costs.

OSHA also ordered the company to expunge the disciplinary records of the three workers, post employee whistle-blower protection rights and train workers on their rights.

In November, the agency ordered Norfolk Southern to pay $288,000 to a worker in Georgia who was terminated after he reported a workplace injury.

Three months earlier, the agency ordered the rail company to pay $932,000 to two workers in similar cases.

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