U.S. District Judge Irene Berger
CHARLESTON – The federal government hasn’t fully complied with a May court order to fully restore operations for the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health facility in Morgantown.
In a June 2 court filing, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said
NIOSH, particularly the Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program, helps protect the respiratory health of coal miners and other workers.
On May 13, U.S. District Judge Irene Berger’s issued an order requiring restoration of NIOSH Respiratory Health Division jobs.
Kennedy Jr.
In April, a Kanawha County coal miner sued the federal government over recent layoffs at the NIOSH facility in Morgantown. Harry Wiley sued the DHHS and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and said he is personally affected by layoffs at the NIOSH facility.
Hundreds of workers at the Morgantown NIOSH facility learned earlier this year they were losing their jobs. The NIOSH Respiratory Health Division focuses on preventing work-related respiratory diseases, and the Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program studies respiratory disease in miners and provides health screenings and information, mostly about black lung.
“Does the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services genuinely believe that a miner diagnosed with black lung is not being injured when the program designed to confirm his condition and provide him with workplace protections to prevent its progression is rendered inaccessible?” Berger wrote. “This court does not share such a belief.”
Berger ordered Kennedy to submit written certification within 20 days that DHHS had complied with her order, saying “there be no pause, stoppage or gap in the protections and services mandated by Congress in the Mine Act and the attendant regulations for the health and safety of miners.”
In Monday’s filing, the DHHS said it still is working to fully restore operations at the Morgantown NIOSH facility.
