Mine industry operators stand to lose a great deal if this final rule is allowed to stand!
- Eliminates initial screening process and PPOV notice system - No opportunity to challenge and no preliminary notice of POV consideration for your company
- Allows MSHA to consider citations and orders as issued by MSHA inspectors for purposes of POV review – In other words, they now can use unproven citations and orders issued (only need to have been cited) versus previously having to use only final orders (citations and orders that have gone through review and conferences). No due process! The allegation or charge is enough for MSHA to find you guilty!
- Allows MSHA to delay the publication of the specific criteria being used to make POV determinations until after the final rule is published. – So we will be judged and be on trial in MSHA’s internal police court without any knowledge of the specific criteria being used to potentially cite, fine or shut down our business!
- Vacating POV status is made more difficult with “mine-wide” zero S&S violations of a mandatory health or safety standard. How this is written would allow any S&S to keep you as a POV operator – It doesn’t say the elimination of the violations that got you into POV status to begin with. Current law allows a conference and an opportunity to form a plan to implement to avoid future POV issues.
If this truly goes into effect, we have lost the due process we are supposedly guaranteed in this country. Hard to take as a citizen trying to operate a business, when you see the lengths this government goes to, to insure the worst criminals in our society have all of their rights protected and the media outrage when this is not the case.
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