Section 103 of the Federal Mine Safety Act requires the Secretary of Labor to conduct frequent inspections and investigations at mines....more
Escalating Enforcement by MSHA of Prohibition against Advance Notice of Inspection - Section 103 of the Federal Mine Safety Act requires the Secretary of Labor to conduct frequent inspections and investigations at...more
A private person who inspects a workplace can be held liable for injury or death due to hazards that should have been found and addressed. That is effectively what the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia recently held...more
Here is the good news: “MSHA acknowledges…the majority of mine operators are conscientious about providing a safe and healthful work environment for their miners.” So says the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in...more
Staying Off MSHA’s “Naughty List” - The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) recently released a Final Rule that significantly changes the way the Agency charged with protecting America’s miners enforces one of...more
In August 2012, the Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Commission (“FMSHRC”), the body that oversees the legal administration and review process of contested violations by mine operators, determined that Commission...more
Two recent news items shine a spotlight on MSHA, its inspection corps, and several publicly acknowledged inspection failures. On February 5, 2013, the W.Va. Supreme Court published a decision that, for purposes of the Federal...more
On Wednesday, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) kicked off its regulatory agenda by lifting the veil on its final rule to revise the Pattern of Violations (POV) system under 30 C.F.R. Part 104. Unless...more
A Kentucky coal mine operator and two of its supervisors have pled guilty to willful safety violations in the wake of a miner’s death....more
A miner’s temporary reinstatement benefits stop once the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission orders an end to a discrimination proceeding. The ruling last month by the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is a...more
MSHA’s demand in 2010 for mine operators to disclose confidential medical and business records led to a court challenge alleging that it violated the Fourth Amendment prohibition against warrantless search and seizure as well...more
A man who passed himself off as a certified mine instructor and lied to MSHA investigators has been sentenced to three years in federal prison....more
Stepping up enforcement at coal mines with alleged violations relating to respirable coal dust, MSHA targeted 13 operations in September under its impact inspection program that the agency contended had a history of...more
The Crandall Canyon Utah coal mine operator agreed to pay $949,351 to settle civil penalties MSHA levied following an accident in 2007 that took the lives of . six miners, followed by the deaths of three additional personnel,...more
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) recently announced what many mine operators and independent contractors have experienced for the past several years – a heightened focus on, and tremendous increase in, the...more
MSHA has released a second guidance document dealing with machine guarding in the Metal/Non-Metal (M/NM) sector. At a stakeholders’ meeting in October, the new guide was described as a sequel to one dealing with conveyor belt...more
A total of 4,609 workers died on the job nationwide in 2011 compared to 4,690 in 2010, according to preliminary data released recently by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The equivalent rates were 3.5 and 3.6 per 100,000...more
In the face of strong criticism by the business community that regulations were holding back the economy and job creation, in 2011 the White House began putting the brakes on numerous initiatives that were working their way...more
Federal agencies face the possibility of substantial cuts to their budgets in January unless Congress acts to prevent them. In what has become known as sequestration, automatic cuts of 8.2 percent will be imposed...more
In This Issue: - MSHA Update ..End of Temporary Reinstatement - That Was Not Temporary - OSHA Update ..Wanted: Regulatory Agendas for 2012 Please see full report below for more information....more
Margo Lopez and Denise Giraudo in our Mine Safety Practice Group are to be highly congratulated for an extraordinary victory that favors the entire mining industry. In Vulcan Construction Materials v. Federal Mine Safety and...more
In This Issue: Safety and Health Enforcement Developments: - MSHA Update - OSHA Update ..OSHA's Oil & Gas Flame Resistant Clothing Memo Held to Be Improper Rulemaking ..Final Electric Power Transmission and...more
In a highly-anticipated decision involving two sets of consolidated contest proceedings, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission has affirmed a May 2011 ALJ order that upheld a broad interpretation of MSHA’s...more
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