Work This Way: A Labor & Employment Law Podcast - Episode 38: Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) with John Holmes of Maynard Nexsen
Over the last week, the Trump administration has put forward its nominees for Assistant Secretary for both the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Health and Safety Administration (MSHA)....more
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (“MSHA”) released its long-anticipated silica rule on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (See the rule here) The rule is aimed at reducing miners’ exposure to respirable crystalline silica,...more
We have an important update to share about the status of MSHA’s Respirable Crystalline Silica rulemaking, officially proposed as Lowering Miners’ Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica and Improving Respiratory Protection....more
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) appropriately held its last stakeholder meeting of 2023 on National Miners Day, which recognizes the Monongah Mine disaster that occurred on December 6, 1907, near Fairmont,...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: This week we are attending the ABA Workplace and Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee Midwinter Meeting in San Diego, California. The meeting includes representatives from the U.S. Department of...more
Mine operators may not be among the employers that will be impacted by OSHA’s mandate-or-test Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), but questions abound in the mining community about the state of the emergency rule and whether...more
When the Biden administration announced on September 9 that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would be issuing a rule requiring employers to ensure its workers are vaccinated against COVID-19 or...more
In a September 28, 2021 Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) stakeholder meeting, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Jeannette J. Galanis stated that MSHA does not intend to issue an emergency temporary standard...more
Within the first days of taking office, President Biden signed many Executive Orders – one of which directs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to...more
On January 21, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed an executive order directing the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to take certain actions to address worker safety and health with regard to...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years—and this past month...more
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, most mine operators have been waiting for MSHA to release some health and safety guidance regarding the outbreak and how to safeguard the safety and health of their miners. After a...more
While the world grapples with COVID-19 and its implications for daily life, those in the mining industry may wonder whether the onset of the pandemic presents any MSHA compliance issues. Indeed, unlike its sister agency OSHA...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Seyfarth Shaw’s OSHA/MSHA group is at the ABA’s Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee Midwinter Meeting this week. Today, we heard from panels that discussed California Workplace Violence and Indoor...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Seyfarth Shaw’s OSHA/MSHA group is at the ABA’s Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee Midwinter Meeting this week....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Seyfarth Shaw’s OSHA/MSHA group is at the ABA’s Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee Midwinter Meeting this week. Today, we heard some introductory remarks from the Solicitor of Labor, a panel who...more
As the current administration continues with its purported deregulatory agenda, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is struggling for an identity. After years of some of the most stringent compliance activity...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The DOL has published its 2020 increases to MSHA civil penalties. The DOL has finalized the 2020 inflation adjustments, which will nudge the penalties up 1.764%. 85 Fed. Reg. 2292 (Jan. 15, 2020)....more
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced today that it would hold a public meeting on its recent Request for Information (RFI) on Respirable Silica (Quartz). That RFI, published on...more
As I write in the current issue of Rock Products magazine, mining is an industry approaching zero, with record low fatality rates. But, enforcement doesn’t always follow risk. Mines account for only 0.5% of U.S. workplace...more
Baked into the core of federal safety laws is the concept that employers facing unfair citations can get a day in court. That system depends on two independent commissions of judges – both trial judges and appellate – to hear...more
After the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Jones Brothers, Inc. v. Sec’y of Labor, citations upheld by administrative law judges within the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (“FMSHRC”) may be...more
After 41 years in the mining industry and three months as the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, David Zatezalo, has begun to publicly outline his vision for the Mine Safety and Health Administration...more