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As of October 2, 2000, MSHA requires
that production-operators and independant contractors develop
and implement a written plan, approved by MSHA, that contains
programs for:
- New miners
- Newly hired experienced miners
- New tasks
- Annual refresher
- Site specific hazard awareness training
To be approved by MSHA, the plan must
amoung other things:
- Include evaluation proceedures for determining the effectiveness
of training.
- Be conducted in accordance with a written training plan.
- Be presented in a language understood by the miners who
are receiving the training.
- Be relevant subjects as required in Part 46.
- Satisfactory recording methods and record keeping as outlined
in Part 46..
SafeWatch© is the tool to
assist you in meeting MSHA part 46 requirements
Those employers/agencies who perform their own crushing
and screening operations are required
to comply with the
new Part 46 training requirements.
Those employers/agencies who send trucks to the site to
be loaded by those performing the crushing/screening operations,
will require site specific hazard training by the mine operator
if the trucks are being loaded while the crushing operations
are occur.
If instead, an employer/agency loads his/her own trucks
while crushing/screening operations are taking place, they
are also required to comply with
Part 46 training requirements.
If crushed material is placed in stockpiles and the crushing/screening
operations have ceased and trucks are later loaded with
the material—Part 46 training is not required.
MSHA will conduct courtesy
inspections in regard to Part 46
compliance. This means that employers will be advised
of violations, but not cited for the same when first inspected
during the construction season. Please keep in mind, this
does not apply to other MSHA regulations and requirements—only
those pertaining to Part 46.
30 CFR PART 46
Overview
A new part 46 has been added to subchapter H of Title 30
of the Code of Federal Regulations to Mandate training and
retraining of miners engaged in shell dredging or employed
at sand, gravel, surface stone, surface clay, colloidal
phosphate, or surface limestone mines.
Your company MUST
develop and implement a written plan approved by MSHA
that contains effective programs for training new miners
and newly hired experienced miners, training miners for
new tasks, annual refresher training and site-specific hazard
awareness training.
NEW miners will receive 24 hours
or more of training. This training will be completed
over a schedule beginning at date of hire and completed
within 90 days.
Newly hired experienced miners will require 8
hours of training within 60 days of hire.
Every 12 months all miners
will receive no less than eight hours of refresher training.
New task training is required
for every miner before the miner is assigned to a task for
which he/or she has no previous experience.
Site-specific hazard awareness
training for employees of independent contractors
or other employees present at the mine site will be required.
Training certification for each employee will be retained
during the duration of employment and 60 days to 24 months
after employment ends.
You will be required to maintain
a copy of your current training plan in effect at
the mine for examination by MSHA.
AM I IMPACTED?
If you are an operator engaged in sand, gravel, surface
clay, surface limestone, surface stone, colloidal phosphate
mining or in shell dredging, the answer is a simple YES!
HOW AM I IMPACTED? With the promulgation
of these rules you must now provide each miner, newly employed
experienced miner and newly employed inexperienced miner
with training that meets the requirements of Part 46. You
must also develop a training plan that meets the minimum
requirements set forth in Part 46.
WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS? Without
reciting every part of these rules, the following summarizes
each of the different requirements:
New Miner Training (§46.5): Each newly employed
inexperienced miner must receive 24 hours of training. The
time frame for completing this training is that 4 hours
must be given before a new miner can begin work at the mine.
No later than 60 days after beginning work the new miner
must receive additional training and no later than 90 days
after beginning work the new miner must receive the balance
of the required 24 hours.
Newly Employed Experienced Miner Training (§46.6):
While there is not a set number of hours, each newly employed
experienced miner must receive training no later than 60
days after beginning work. The training given must be in
accordance with the training plan adopted by the operator.
Annual Refresher Training (§46.8): All miners
must receive 8 hours of training at least once every 12
months. This training must be in accordance with the training
plan adopted by the operator.
Task Training (§46.7): Each miner who may undertake
a new assignment or who has a change in a regularly assigned
task, must be given task training in accordance with this
section.
Hazard Training (§46.11): This training must
be given to any person who is not a miner and who is at
the mine site and who could be exposed to mine hazards.
Note that this training must be site specific.
Training Records (§46.9): Once a miner or person
has completed training, you must record and certify on your
form or on MSHA form 5000-23, that the miner or person has
received the required training.
Training Plan (§46.3) and Training Plan Implementation
(§46.4): You must prepare a written training plan
that at a minimum contains those things described in this
section. Unlike the Part 48 requirements, the training plan
does not have to be approved by MSHA if it contains the
minimum information required by the rules. You can however,
seek MSHA approval even though your plan has all the required
information. Should you choose to deviate from the information
set forth in this section, you must submit your plan to
MSHA for approval and it must be approved by MSHA before
you can implement it. The training plan required by this
section must be in place on or before October 2, 2000.
WHAT
ARE THE CONSEQUENCES FOR NON-COMPLIANCE? Historically,
MSHA has taken an extremely dim view toward operators who
fail to comply with the training requirements set forth
in Part 48. One should assume that they would look at Part
46 training in the same fashion. Some of the most severe
penalties, be it civil or criminal, have been imposed against
mining companies, mine operators, 3rd party training instructors,
and against individuals for (1) failure to train or record
that training has been given; (2) failure to train within
prescribed time frames; and (3) falsification that training
has been done when in fact it has not. The latter will probably
be considered by MSHA to be the most egregious and serious.
A 104(g) order
of withdrawl on each miner or person from the mine until
he/she has received the required training. If this happens
be aware that the operator must continue to pay the miner
his/her regular wages even though they are not working.
A 104(a) or 104(d) citation/order to the operator. Penalties
can range from $50 for non-S&S citations to $10,000
for S&S citations. The penalties can be much higher
for knowing/willful violations and there is also the potential
for criminal liability against either the company and/or
an individual.
Among the many penalties imposed by MSHA and the courts
over the years, a couple are worth noting.
In one case a mine operator was fined $32,000 for failing
to provide adequate task training to an inexperienced miner
who was killed after being struck by a piece of mining equipment.
MSHA discovered 13 additional alleged training violations
that indicated an "indifference" at the mine to
training. See White Oak Mining & Construction Co., Docket
Nos. WEST 96-235, 19 FMSHRC 1414 (Aug. 13, 1997), (ALJ Hodgdon).
In another case,
a mine operator was initially fined $12,500 where MSHA had
found that two miners had not received "new miner"
training and where nine miners had not received "newly
employed experienced miner" training. The ALJ in the
case later reduced the fines to a total of $3,500. See S
& M Construction Inc., Docket No. WEST 96-3, 18 FMHSRC
1018 (June 20, 1996), (ALJ Koutras).
Falsification
of training records, (saying that training was provided
when in fact it wasn't) will bring the stiffest penalties
that either an operator or an individual can face. Where
MSHA can prove that training records have been falsified,
they can seek not only civil penalties but many times will
seek criminal sanctions against the company and/or an individual.
Just to give
you some idea of what penalties you could face should you
falsify training records, the following will provide some
example of how serious MSHA is when it comes to these types
of violations.
In one recent
matter, an individual was sentenced by the U.S. District
Court in Abington, Va. to four months imprisonment, followed
by four months of home detention, and three years of supervised
release for falsely certifying on MSHA Form 5000-23 that
employees of his company had received required safety training
when in fact they had not. In addition, he also was fined
$20,000 for the training violations and was ordered to pay
$70,000 in back taxes after claiming that the company's
employees were independent contractors and not employees
of the company.
In another recent
case a qualified mine safety trainer was sentenced in U.S.
District Court to 12 months imprisonment followed by a three
year term of supervised release. The trainer, pursuant to
a plea agreement, pled guilty to a felony charge of falsifying
fourteen MSHA forms 5000-23. The trainer certified that
he had provided new miner training to fourteen miners, when
in fact he had not provided any. He was also ordered to
pay a fine of $3,000. The court could have sentenced the
trainer to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 but
chose to impose the lesser penalties.
HOW DO I COMPLY? As you can see from the above examples,
it is critical that you take these new training requirements
seriously and take every effort to comply. Do so by:
Developing a training plan before October 2, 2000. If you
need or want MSHA approval, you should get your plan developed
and submitted to MSHA as soon as possible so that you have
the approved plan by October 2nd. You can do the plan yourself
by following the guide provided in the Part 46 rules or
you can turn to outside resources who have experience in
plan development for assistance.
Take inventory of the training and experience that each
of your miners have or do not have. You should also look
at their respective work assignments to determine whether
or not task training will be required.
Develop your record keeping system. MSHA 5000-23 forms provide
an excellent way to record miner training.
Start your annual retraining program ASAP. Don't wait until
the last minute, get a leg up on this requirement. Keep
in mind that the person who does the training must be a
"competent person"2 as defined by the rules. This
may be someone within your organization or you can also
look to outside resources for help. Many outside resources
have extensive experience with miner training and may provide
you with a viable and economic alternative to doing it yourself.
Make sure that all newly employed miners, experienced and
inexperienced are given training as required. It might be
useful to begin that process now rather than waiting until
the effective date of these rules. Again, the training can
be conducted by someone in your group or by outside resources
so long as they are deemed competent.
Begin hazard training for all persons who come to your site
and begin keeping records that identify who has received
the training and when. This is done so that persons, such
as vendors do not slip through the cracks and enter your
site without the required training. Each vendor should be
given hazard training at least annually so as to avoid any
inference by MSHA that they have not been trained.
Is Part 46 for
real? I hope you know the answer and that you act accordingly.
Don't put yourself in a position of having to defend yourself
because you thought it wasn't real. The choice is yours!
Dave Lauriski is Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine
Safety and Health Administration
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