House Committee Approves Landmark Miner and Worker Safety Legislation
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On a 30-17 vote, the House Education and Labor Committee approved legislation today to reform the nation’s mine and worker safety laws. The Robert C. Byrd Miner Safety and Health Act (H.R. 5663) would provide stronger tools to ensure that underground coal mine operations with troubling safety records improve conditions, empower workers to speak up about safety concerns and give the Department of Labor the tools it needs to ensure that all workers go home safely at the end of the day.
“Too many families have suffered a tragic loss because of callous mine operators, ineffective protections and outdated laws. It is time to provide effective protections so that every worker can return home safely at the end of their shift. Congress has an obligation to make sure that is the case,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the committee. “This legislation addresses serious gaps in the law and makes comprehensive, common-sense reforms to strengthen our nation’s safety laws.” The legislation approved by the committee would gives miners working in underground coal mines additional protections against retaliation if they speak up about dangerous conditions. In May, the House Education and Labor Committee heard testimony in Beckley, West Virginia from miners and families of those who died in the Upper Big Branch Mine about serious shortcomings in miner protections, including threats and intimidation of miners who brought up safety concerns to their bosses.
The Upper Big Branch explosion also highlighted serious flaws in existing laws that undermine MSHA’s ability to bring tougher sanctions against our nation’s most dangerous mines. The bill would revamp the criteria for ‘pattern of violations’ sanctions to ensure that dangerous underground coal mine operations fix chronic problems.
“The safety and health of our nation's miners is too important not to act,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), chair of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. “The Occupational Safety and Health Act, in particular, has not been significantly amended in 40 years and is badly outdated and needs to be brought into the 21st century. The bill that has been voted out of this committee will save lives and I am looking forward to its passage on the floor.”
In addition, responding to a number of recent deadly explosions at refineries, power plants and food processing facilities, the bill would also extend similar worker protections to all workplaces in order to hold employers accountable if they knowingly put their workers in danger.
“Every day, 14 workers don’t come home from work. While they don’t make headlines like trapped miners do, their lives and limbs are no less valuable,” said Miller.
The mine safety portion of the bill approved would apply to all underground coal mines and other so-called ‘gassy’ mines that emit potentially flammable or explosive amounts of methane.
Among other provisions, the reforms approved:
• Making Mines with Serious and Repeated Violations Safe – Criteria for ‘pattern of violations’ sanctions would be revamped for underground coal mines and other ‘gassy’ mines to ensure that operators which chronically and repeatedly violate mine safety standards or have high accident rates improve safety dramatically.
• Ensuring Irresponsible Operators are Held Accountable – Maximum criminal penalties would be increased for underground coal mines, and a sanction is established for mine operators who knowingly tamper with or disable safety equipment that could kill miners. Operators would be required to pay penalties in a timely manner.
• Giving MSHA Better Enforcement Tools – MSHA would be given the authority to subpoena documents and testimony. The agency could seek a court order to close a mine when there is a continuing threat to the health and safety of miners. MSHA could require more training of miners in unsafe mines. MSHA will require contractors, in addition to operators, to report accidents and injuries, and hours of work at each mine, and those filing reports would be held responsible for their accuracy.
• Protecting Miners Who Speak out on Unsafe Conditions – Protections for workers who speak out about unsafe conditions in underground coal and other gassy mines would be strengthened and would guarantee that miners wouldn’t lose pay for safety-related closures. In addition, miners would receive protections allowing them to speak freely during investigations.
• Modernizing Safety Requirements in Coal Mines – Increased rock dusting would be required to prevent coal dust explosions. Pre-shift reviews of hazards and violations in the mine must be communicated to incoming miners to ensure that they are not caught unaware. Protocols for continuous atmospheric monitoring for methane and carbon monoxide will be developed by NIOSH and adopted by MSHA through regulations.
• Increasing MSHA’s Accountability – The legislative outline provides for an independent investigation of the most serious accidents, which includes an assessment of whether there are gaps in MSHA’s oversight or regulation. It asks the Government Accountability Office to assess whether there are problems with timeliness of mine plan reviews.
• Guaranteeing Basic Protections in All Other Workplaces under OSHA – To ensure that all workplaces have basic protections, whistleblower protections would be strengthened, criminal and civil penalties would be increased, and hazard abatement would be sped up. In addition, victims of accidents and their family members would be provided greater rights during investigations and enforcement actions. OSHA would be allowed to assert concurrent enforcement jurisdiction in states with OSHA state plans, if the state is failing to maintain protections for workers that is at least as effective as federal OSHA.
More information on these reforms
Next Article