MSHA conferences – yes or no?
The Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA) has announced a
new procedure for reviewing citations and proposed civil penalties.
The new procedure basically comes
down to this: Operators can have a
conference if they request one within
10 days of an inspection. Except in
limited circumstances, no conference
will occur until after civil penalties
are assessed.
MSHA has had a regulation for
many years that provides: All parties shall be afforded an opportunity
to review with MSHA each citation
and order issued during an inspec-
tion. While the regulations make such
conferences discretionary, traditionally, mine operators would be granted
a conference if they made a request
within 10 days of inspection closeout.
Conferences, of course, were designed to give operators an opportunity
to talk with MSHA about the inspector’s findings and to provide information to prevent unfairness, to avoid
undeserved sanctions such as repeat
penalty closure orders, elevated assessments and needless special investigations. Conferences also allow MSHA
to explain why a citation was justified.
Until recently, conferences were con-
Legal tip
Except in limited circumstances,
no conference will occur until after
civil penalties are assessed.
ducted prior to MSHA’s assessment of
penalties. If MSHA explained matters
satisfactorily, the operator might never
challenge the subsequent civil penalty.
It is worth stressing that conferences allow for valuable communication between operators and MSHA.
They facilitate problem resolution and
advance operator understanding of
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