HHS reinstates fired workers responsible for coal miner health protection

Federal government reverses mass layoffs in effort to preserve vital program for local workers: 'I want to be cautiously optimistic'

Trump administration layoffs in the Department of Health and Human Services were rolled back on April 29 after they imperiled a program that screens coal miners for black lung disease. On June 2, though, the dozens of employees will be fired again, the Washington Post reported. Black lung is "a deadly and incurable disease caused by inhaling toxic coal dust." The move puts the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program in limbo. It is administere…

HHS backtracks on firing hundreds of federal health workers

Secretary Kennedy said he brought back 328 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health employees, including those overseeing coal miner and 9/11 screenings.

HHS reinstates fired workers responsible for coal miner health protection

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reinstated nearly 200 workers who screen coal miners for black lung, an incurable progressive disease caused by long-term exposure to coal dust, following a federal judge’s order Tuesday.   U.S. District Judge Irene Berger issued a preliminary injunction halting the firings at the National Institute for Occupational Safety…

Under pressure, HHS reinstates hundreds of occupational health workers

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is restoring several programs and bringing back the staffers who run them, but much of the agency's work is still on the chopping block.

Health department to reverse federal layoffs of coal safety workers, senator says

Over 100 federal employees who screen coal miners for black lung disease and research other respiratory disease who had been terminated as part of sweeping government layoffs have had their jobs restored permanently, West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito…

HHS Reinstates Some NIOSH Workers in Morgantown

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reinstated more than 100 federal employees with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) office in Morgantown, W.Va., according to ABC News. More than 350 workers at this office were laid off in April. Among other things, the Morgantown office operates the NIOSH Coal Worker’s Health Surveillance Program (CWHSP), which offers periodic black lung screenings at no cost …