Training on the clock
Health and safety training during normal working hours, at your regular rate of pay. Part 46 and Part 48 set the hours you are owed.
Miner rights
What the Mine Act gives you
Training on the clock, an inspection when you ask for one, and no punishment for reporting a hazard. The rights belong to every miner, and they only work if you know them.
Report a hazard · anonymous if you choose
1-800-746-1553
MSHA’s 24-hour line for violations, hazardous conditions, and imminent danger. You do not need to identify yourself.
Miner rights
Every miner has the right to a safe, healthy workplace.
Your rights
Ten things no supervisor can take away
Every one of these comes out of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. We cover them in new miner training and again in annual refresher.
A complaint without your name
File a safety or health complaint with MSHA, a state agency, your operator, or a miners’ representative. You do not have to identify yourself to report a hazard.
An inspection of the mine
Ask for an inspection where you believe an imminent danger, or a violation of the Act or a standard, exists.
A representative you choose
Select a representative for safety and health purposes, and take part in the inspection as that representative.
Withdraw from the mine
Leave the mine when the required health and safety training has not been provided.
Pay during a closure
Be paid during certain periods when a withdrawal order has closed the mine, or the part of it where you work.
Refuse unsafe work
Refuse work you believe is unsafe, unhealthy, or illegal, after notifying the operator and giving them a chance to correct it.
A medical evaluation
A medical evaluation, or consideration for transfer to another job location, because of harmful physical agents or toxic substances.
Testify and file
Take part in Mine Act proceedings: testify, assist, or file a complaint with the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.
No retaliation
Exercise any right under the Act. Firing, cutting pay or hours, or denying overtime or a promotion for doing it is illegal.
The other side
Rights come with responsibilities
The law protects miners who use it the right way. These are the limits that matter most in the field.
Always
- Comply with federal and state laws, the regulations, and your mine’s safety and health policies.
- Notify the operator of an unsafe or unhealthy condition, and give them an opportunity to address it, before you refuse the work.
Never
- Give advance notice of an MSHA inspection conducted under the Act.
- Knowingly make a false statement to MSHA.
- Knowingly make a false representation on an application, record, report, plan, or training certificate.
- Smoke in an underground coal or gassy metal/nonmetal mine, or anywhere else it is prohibited.
Section 105(c) · discrimination
Disciplined for reporting? You have 60 days.
Firing, denying overtime or a promotion, reducing pay or hours, or any other punishment for exercising a right under the Mine Act is discrimination. File a complaint with MSHA within 60 days of the act. MSHA can investigate and take the case to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission on your behalf.
Get the complaint packetForms and booklets
Print it, post it, hand it out
Official MSHA documents, straight from the source. Post the rights notice where miners actually take their breaks.
A Guide to Miners’ Rights and ResponsibilitiesMSHA 3116 — the full bookletMiners’ Rights poster, 8.5 x 11Print it for the dry, the scale house, the shopHazardous Condition ComplaintReport a hazard online, anonymously if you chooseDiscrimination Complaint PacketThe 105(c) filing formsGuía a los Derechos y Responsabilidades de los MinerosMSHA 3116-S, en español
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