Mine safety panel would investigate serious accidents and publish findings

A five-member panel would independently investigate certain serious mine accidents and publish findings and recommendations. The panel would include mine safety experts, including a representative of the mine safety research office, a mine operator representative, and a miners’ labor representative. The panel would be required for accidents involving at least three deaths, and for other accidents the Secretary of Health and Human Services finds severe enough to merit review. The Health and Human Services Secretary would appoint the panel as soon as practicable after a covered accident.

Mine workers and certain family members would be protected from retaliation for raising safety concerns or refusing unsafe work. Protections would cover mine workers, miners’ representatives, job applicants, and certain family members who work or apply at the operator’s mine. A worker refusing a task would need a good-faith, reasonable belief that it poses a safety or health hazard and, when practicable, first raise the concern with the operator without receiving an adequate response. A worker could file a retaliation complaint within 180 days of the alleged violation, or of learning about it if later.

Operators would pay miners idled by specified mine closure orders, subject to limits that vary by shift and closure. The protections cover miners idled by orders closing a mine or part of it, or by an operator’s advance closure that the Secretary finds anticipated an order. Pay would generally be at the miner’s regular rate. If an operator closes a mine ahead of an order, the Secretary must find that the closure was in anticipation of that order; the pay exception applies when the operator promptly withdraws miners upon discovering a hazard and gives required notice. Pay for an extended closure would be limited to 60 days; pay for miners idled by an order on the first shift would cover no more than the rest of that shift.

Underground coal mine operators would take samples and use approved monitors to measure combustible dust, and keep records of rock dust purchases. The sampling and monitor requirements apply to underground coal mines; the purchase-record requirement applies to each coal mine. Measurements from direct-reading monitors could not be used to prove a violation until the Secretary issues a final rule authorizing their use for enforcement. The Secretary would issue interim sampling rules and require monitor use within 180 days after enactment; purchase records would need ongoing updates.

The Secretary would set rules for mine atmosphere monitoring systems, and underground coal miners would receive annual refresher training that includes miners’ rights. The monitoring rules would apply to underground coal mine operators; annual refresher training would apply to all miners. The monitoring rules would cover systems that report methane, oxygen, and carbon monoxide levels, and airflow, as appropriate. The Secretary would consider other monitoring equipment and backup systems. The Secretary would issue monitoring rules within one year of enactment. Miners already employed when the Act is enacted would receive one hour of rights training within 180 days.