ENFORCEMENT QUOTAS COULD BE MSHA’S BIG SECRET

Despite protestations to the contrary from MSHA officials, two of its field personnel describe an Agency driven by quotas and enforcement numbers that force inspectors to produce ever more and heavier citation paper.

“‘Quotas’ have not been established, yet we have repeatedly been told that S&S, high negligence, unwarrantable failures and flagrant violations were not at acceptable (high enough) levels; albeit, no one has been willing to explain what is acceptable,” a supervisor said. 

An inspector concurred.  “They tell us no, but it’s a rule that you have to write so many, you have to have 30% S&S . . .You are reminded on a constant basis what your numbers are.”  The inspector said he was also expected to write heavy paper. Asked specifically about 104(d) unwarrantable failure violations, he said, “[T]hey keep a running tab of how many you issue, and they hold it against you if you do not have any in the course of a physical year.”

He also said his supervisor warned him not to return to the office without writing at least one citation on every inspection.  That level is actually way below the rumored four-citation minimum that an industry attorney reported to an operators group in March.

Thanks to Jim Sharpe, Sharpes Point for allowing us to publish the introduction to his article concerning inspector citation quotas. The remainder of the article can be seen in the June Issue of  Sharpes Point.

SUBSCRIPTIONS can be made at 703-379-0652 or emailing to SharpeMedia@verizon.net.