Judge orders restoration of jobs in health program for West Virginia coal miners

A judge on Tuesday ordered the restoration of a health monitoring program for coal miners in West Virginia.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A judge on Tuesday ordered the restoration of a health monitoring program for coal miners in West Virginia and rescinded layoffs the federal government implemented in a unit of a small U.S. health agency.

U.S. District Judge Irene Berger issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by a coal miner who was diagnosed with a respiratory ailment commonly known as black lung disease.

Nearly 200 workers at a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health facility in Morgantown were told last month that their jobs were being terminated as part of restructuring within Health and Human Services. Berger ordered that jobs be restored within NIOSH’s respiratory health division in Morgantown, although her ruling didn’t specify a number. The division is responsible for screening and reviewing medical exams to determine whether there is evidence that miners have developed black lung.

Federal law mandates that regular health screenings be made available to coal miners. Those diagnosed with black lung also are given the option to transfer to other positions in a mine to protect them from continued dust exposure without a pay reduction.

Berger said the defendants “lack the authority to unilaterally cancel” the Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program within NIOSH. She ordered both the surveillance and job transfer programs to be restored, saying that “there be no pause, stoppage or gap in the protections and services” mandated by the federal Mine Safety and Health Act.