Published: July 30, 2008 07:42 am      

Director seeks more pay for mine inspectors

CHARLESTON — West Virginia’s coal inspectors are being lured away by higher pay in the industry, prompting Ron Wooten, director of the state Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training, to ask lawmakers for bigger salaries.

Within the past two years, Wooten told the House Select Committee on Mine Safety in Tuesday’s interims, the turnover rate within the ranks of inspectors reached 18 percent.

In many instances, he said, inspectors are leaving the state for more lucrative pay and benefits as miners.

“If they’re on a mine rescue team, they get a $3,000 bonus as well,” he said.

Wooten said his agency employs about 100 inspectors and ideally needs an increase of 20.

“We have to shore up that starting salary,” he said.

In another issue, Wooten emphasized he had no intention of relaxing the certification standards that determine if a worker passes muster to be a miner.

The panel’s co-chair, Delegate Mike Caputo, D-Marion, an official of the United Mine Workers of America, said a budding miner might “fudge” his experience to get a job. For example, he said an inexperienced worker could land a job while his only training has been to vulcanize a belt.

“That might lead to a false sense of security,” Caputo said.

Afterward, Wooten said he planned to look at some changes to existing exemptions and possibly require certification of those with previous waivers.

“I’d like to eliminate all exceptions, if possible, but I don’t think that’s possible,” he said.

On another matter, Wooten indicated the jury remained out on a proposal by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health for underground shelters patterned after the 1950s era fallout shelters, inspired by the launching of the Russian satellite Sputnik in the Cold War.

That shelter stipulates 80 cubic feet per individual using a shelter in an underground mine, and Wooten feels it is impractical.

In contrast, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration prefers one of smaller dimensions — 65 cubic feet per miner.

“We’re looking at what the state has done,” the director said.

“Basically, the state did not design or require design specifications for space. They were more concerned, and I think appropriately so, about temperature within the confines of the shelter. That dictated how much space would be required, how much air you would need to diffuse the temperature to the outside.”

In normal circumstances, Wooten told the committee, one would anticipate miners holding up in the shelters a maximum of 96 hours, while the 1958-style fallout shelter is intended to be occupied up to two weeks.

Moreover, he advised the lawmakers, the larger size of the NIOSH concept is “totally not applicable.”

“That unit is so large it’s impossible to move around, from cross cut to cross cut,” Wooten said.

Wooten told the panel the tracking systems, required under legislation passed in response to the Sago mine disaster, are being deployed.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all,” he said. “Each one has to design a system to take into consideration the uniqueness of that coal mine.”

Another UMWA official, Ted Hapney, endorsed the proposed pay increase for inspectors, pointing to the “constant problem” with the turnover rate.

“Our state requires a longer tenure to become a state inspector,” he said. “I think we ought to do what we can to keep those inspectors.”

Wooten advised Caputo that 27 states require inspectors for mining practices, although not all of them are coal producers.