Arlington, VA — Mine Safety and Health Administration officers lately introduced the company recognized a number of Pattern of Violations offenders throughout a single screening interval – an unprecedented motion in MSHA historical past.
The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 authorizes MSHA to subject POV notices – one of its strictest enforcement instruments – to operators who “demonstrate a disregard for the health and safety of miners through a pattern of significant and substantial violations.”
Mines that obtain a POV discover should withdraw miners from the affected space till MSHA determines that the violation has been abated, an company press launch states.
In June 2016, MSHA introduced it had discovered no POV offenders throughout a screening interval for the primary time since POV reforms went into impact in 2010.
Overall, MSHA went greater than eight years between issuing POV notices – from September 2014 to December 2022.
The company gives compliance help via separate on-line instruments. POV monitoring notifies mine operators who’re approaching POV standing and alerts them to take corrective motion. Miners can also observe important and substantial violations via the S&S fee calculator.
A January 2013 closing rule permits MSHA to think about extenuating circumstances earlier than issuing a POV discover and prompts operators to repair issues ought to they strategy the brink of a POV.
“A central tenet of a good job is a safe and healthy workplace,” MSHA head Chris Williamson stated in the discharge. “The Biden-Harris administration will continue to use all the tools with which Congress empowered MSHA to protect the health and safety of the nation’s miners.”
