The Department of Labor’s Inspector General (IG) set out to answer a very specific question: Have MSHA’s civil penalties deterred unsafe mine operations? That seems like a fair question, given that MSHA has assessed more than $1 billion and collected more than $800 million in civil monetary penalties since 2000.
What did the investigation reveal? In a recent Rock Products column, I take a look at conclusions in the IG’s report titled “MSHA Did Not Evaluate Whether Civil Monetary Penalties Effectively Deterred Unsafe Mine Operations.” Read the full column here.