On Tuesday, July 13, 2010, the Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing on “H.R. 5663, the Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010.” H.R. 5663 will bring our nation’s mine health and safety laws up to date, give MSHA the ability to effectively protect miners’ lives, hold mine operators accountable for putting their workers in unnecessary danger, and expand protections to all other workers by strengthening OSHA.

In April, 29 miners were killed at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, the worst coal mine disaster in America in 40 years. In the last decade, more than 600 miners have died while working in our nation’s mines.

The Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee held a field forum in Middletown, Conn. on Monday, June 28 regarding the Kleen Energy Systems power plant explosion. On February 7, a massive explosion ripped through the natural gas power plant that was under construction killing five workers and injuring dozens.

Shortly after the explosion, Connecticut U.S. Reps. Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro, and John Larson requested that the committee hold a proceeding into the tragedy. Rep. Courtney is a member of the Education and Labor Committee.

The House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on Wednesday, June 23 to examine how worker health and safety is regulated and enforced by various parties from oil rigs themselves to post-accident cleanup operations.

Questions have been raised about who is ultimately responsible for worker health and safety in light of the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and exposed cleanup workers to toxic chemicals. Representatives from government health and safety agencies testified.

The House Education and Labor Committee announced today that the committee will hold a field hearing in Beckley, West Virginia on the worst mining tragedy in the U.S. in almost four decades. On April 5, an explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia killed 29 miners and injured others.

More information on the committee’s work to protect the health and safety of America’s miners.

The Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing Wednesday on a proposal to strengthen protections for workers who blow the whistle on dangerous workplace conditions, and guarantee a voice for families of workers killed, and those who are seriously injured, or become ill on the job.

Among other provisions, the Protecting America’s Workers Act (H.R. 2067) and proposed changes to legislation, would update workplace whistleblower protections by mirroring other modern whistleblower statutes, such as the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. The bill would also ensure that victims and their families are kept informed about investigations of fatalities and incidents involving serious injuries or illnesses.

The Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on legislation to modernize workplace health and safety penalties.

The Protecting America’s Workers Act (H.R. 2067), introduced by U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D- CA), chair of the subcommittee, will strengthen and modernize the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the law that ensures the health and safety of American workers.

On Tuesday, February 23, the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing to assess whether a backlog of mine safety enforcement actions are adversely impacting the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s ability to protect miners’ safety and prevent future tragedies, and to evaluate options to remedy the problem.

There is a rapidly growing number of mine safety enforcement cases currently pending before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), a small independent agency which provides administrative trial and appellate review of contested citations, penalties, and worker retaliation cases. As the result of stepped-up enforcement and tougher penalties after a spate of mine tragedies in 2005 and 2006, mine owners tripled the number of violations they appeal and are now litigating 67 percent of all penalties. The backlog of cases FMSHRC must review has jumped from 2,100 in 2006 to approximately 16,000 today.

The House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing Tuesday, November 17 on how employer paid sick leave policies can help slow the spread of contagious diseases, like the H1N1 flu virus.

At least 50 million American workers currently do not have access to paid sick leave, many in lower-wage industries that have direct contact with the public such as food-service, hospitality industry, schools and health care fields. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that a sick worker will infect one in ten co-workers. As a result, the CDC and other public health officials have advised employers to be flexible when dealing with sick employees and to develop leave policies that will not punish workers for being ill.

On November 3, U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the committee, and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), chair of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee, introduced the Emergency Influenza Containment Act (H.R. 3991). The temporary legislation will guarantee up to five paid sick days for a worker sent home or directed to stay home by an employer for a contagious illness, such as the H1N1 flu virus.

For more information on the bill, click here.

The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on Thursday, October 29 to examine the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s critical review of Nevada’s workplace health and safety program. OSHA reviewed Nevada’s health and safety program between January 2008 and June 2009 and found a number of deficiencies with the plan. A spate of accidents drew national attention during the city’s building boom that killed 12 construction workers on the Las Vegas strip over an 18-month period between 2006 and 2008.

To read the OSHA review of the Nevada health and safety program, click here.

To learn more, visit this blog post.

The Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on Thursday, April 30 on the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Enhanced Enforcement Program.

The Enhanced Enforcement Program identifies high risk employers by their past behavior and targets them for additional scrutiny. However, the U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General’s Office issued a report on April 1 that found the Bush administration did not properly enforce worker health and safety laws used to oversee employers with history of safety violations. It shows that over the last five years, since the program was established, the EEP has failed to effectively deter employers from putting workers’ lives at risk.

This hearing examined the Department of Labor’s last-minute proposal that would dramatically weaken future workplace health standards and further slow their enactment. The department allowed only 30 days for comment on the proposal and would not hold public hearings.

The Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s lack of adequate enforcement and oversight of workplace safety and health conditions within large, multiple-facility corporations.

Witnesses explored events at the Cintas Corporation, the largest uniform supplier in North America. In 2007, a worker died at the company’s Tulsa facility despite previous evidence, known to both OSHA and Cintas, of similar hazards at other Cintas facilities and industrial laundries. The death resulted in the largest service sector fine in OSHA’s history and was followed by additional citations of similar problems at other Cintas facilities.

The Committee held a hearing on legislation to help prevent worksite explosions like the one at the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, in early February 2008 that killed 12 workers and critically injured 11 others.

The Combustible Dust Explosion and Fire Prevention Act (H.R. 5522) would force the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue rules regulating combustible industrial dusts, like sugar dust, that can build up to hazardous levels and explode. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration already has the authority to issue such a rule without Congress passing new legislation, but the agency has failed to act despite the fact that the dangers of combustible dust have been well known for years.

U.S. Reps. George Miller (D-CA) and John Barrow (D-GA) introduced the legislation on March 4, 2008. To learn more about H.R. 5522, <a href="http://www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/edlabor_dem/rel030308.html">click here</a>.