BNSF Railway, engineers union reach tentative deal for paid sick leave

(Reuters) - BNSF Railway and the engineers union on Tuesday reached a tentative agreement on paid sick leave and improvements in work schedules for the freight railway giant's locomotive engineers.

The tentative agreement includes up to eight paid sick leave days and grants access to scheduled time off, BNSF Railway and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) said in a joint statement.

BNSF Railway, which employs about 7,500 locomotive engineers represented by BLET, is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

"The agreement will allow for more predictable scheduling and enable engineers to take paid sick leave without any penalty," the statement said.

The deal comes months after negotiations and pending ratification by BLET's members at BNSF, which is one of the country's largest freight rail networks.

Several U.S. rail unions representing conductors and engineers have been demanding for better sick leave and work schedules.

(Reporting by Amna Karimi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)