The American Coal Council featured Matt Korn's article "Shifting Gears: MSHA Proposes Changes To Penalty Criteria" on ACCLive July 31, 2014.  The article was reprinted with permission and originally published on the Workplace Safety and Health Law Blog.

On July 29, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced a Proposed Rule to revise the criteria and procedures for assessment of civil penalties under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act ("Mine Act"). The Proposed Rule will significantly alter the evaluation of citations and will have an impact on all mine operators that receive citations. MSHA released a brief Fact Sheet describing the proposed changes, which we have also summarized below. Rather than using the current 208-point scale (Section 100.3(g)), MSHA's Proposed Rule would convert the Penalty Conversion Table to a 100-point scale, with different relative weights for each criteria.

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