Opinion ID: 859134
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Part 50 Audits

Text: During inspections of several mines in October 2010, MSHA inspectors presented letters ordering the mine operators to have several pieces of information and documents related to the 7000-1 and 7000-2 reports from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010 “available for review” during their next inspections. The demanded documents included:

and Production Reports 3. All payroll records and time sheets for all individuals working at your mine for the covered time period 4. The number of employees working at the mine for each quarter 5. All medical records, doctor’s slips, worker compensation filings, sick leave requests or reports, drug testing documents, emergency medical transportation records, and medical claims forms in your possession relating to accidents, injuries, or illnesses that occurred at the mine or may have resulted from work at the mine for all individuals working at your mine for the period of July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010. Joint App. 32. 8 Nos. 12-2316 & 12-2460 MSHA sent this letter to thirty-nine mines, including two mines operated by Peabody Energy Company. Counsel for MSHA later told the Commission that the thirty-nine mines were selected because, “but for supposedly low severity measures . . . they would have met the criteria for a potential pattern of violations screening.” Comm’n Tr. at 45. MSHA designates a mine as having a “pattern of violations” (“POV”) when the mine has established a history of significant and substantial violations of mandatory safety or health standards. 30 U.S.C. § 814(e); see also 30 C.F.R. §§ 104.1 et seq. Once a mine is in POV status, MSHA has increased authority to institute safety precautions, which can involve burdensome administrative requirements and disruption of mine activities. See 30 U.S.C. § 814(e) (authorizing withdrawal orders after a POV notice); 30 C.F.R. § 104.4 (requiring mine operators to post all POV notifications and listing actions a mine operator may be required to take upon issuance of a POV notice). Thus, MSHA had determined, based on other data it collected, that these thirty-nine mines’ Incidence Rates and Severity Measures were statistically lower than MSHA’s calculations indicated they should be. MSHA suspected that the mines might be under-reporting injuries to avoid the increased scrutiny that would come with POV status. Reviewing employee medical and personnel records could enable MSHA to determine if more em- ployees had been injured or ill than the mines had reported. When MSHA representatives first presented the initial demand letter to two Peabody-owned mines, Nos. 12-2316 & 12-2460 9 mine personnel complied with the requests to produce the 7000-1 and 7000-2 reports and the number of em- ployees working at the mine for each quarter (items 1, 2, and 4), but they refused to produce payroll and medical records (items 3 and 5). MSHA sent another letter on October 28, 2010, demanding the same list of documents. Counsel for petitioner Peabody and another mine operator, petitioner Big Ridge, responded to the October 28 letter with a letter explaining that the mine operators would not comply with the medical and payroll record demands because they did not believe the demands were within MSHA’s authority. They also expressed concern for the privacy rights of miners and privacy of the mines’ “confidential business information.” Joint App. 70, 72. MSHA inspectors returned to two mines operated by Peabody on November 9, 2011, and again demanded the medical and personnel records. The mine operators again refused, and the inspectors issued citations under 30 U.S.C. § 814(a). With the dispute having already been teed up, the citations listed the failure-to-abate period as fifteen minutes, meaning that the mine operators would have fifteen minutes from the time the citation was issued to comply with the underlying demand before MSHA could begin imposing failure-toabate penalties under section 814(b). When, after fifteen minutes passed, mine personnel again refused to produce the records, the inspectors issued failure-to-abate orders under section 814(b). MSHA later imposed a penalty fee of $4,000 per day in conjunction with the failure-toabate order on one mine, Peabody Midwest. 10 Nos. 12-2316 & 12-2460 The mine operators contested the orders and citations, and the case was heard by an administrative law judge. MSHA stayed the daily failure-to-abate penalties while the hearing was pending. In two opinions issued on May 20, 2011, the ALJ affirmed the citations and orders, finding that (1) the medical and personnel records MSHA sought were relevant to the mines’ compliance with reporting regulations, (2) MSHA was authorized to demand the records as part of a Part 50 audit, and (3) the demands did not impose an unreasonable burden on the mine operators. The mine operators appealed to the Commission, which consolidated several similar cases. A group of miners who objected to the record demands intervened and filed briefs. The Commission affirmed the orders and citations on May 24, 2012. The Commission held that MSHA was authorized to make the demands under sections 813(a) and (h) and Part 50.41. The Commission also held that the demands did not violate either the mine operators’ or the miners’ privacy or Fourth Amendment rights, that the demands did not violate mine operators’ Fifth Amendment right to due process, and that the demands did not conflict with other federal and state laws. One commissioner dissented, arguing that MSHA would need to undertake additional notice-and-comment rulemaking to have the authority to demand the records without offending the Fourth or Fifth Amendments. The mine operators and miners petitioned for review of the Commission’s decision, raising all of the objections they raised before the Commission. Nos. 12-2316 & 12-2460 11