CHAPTER 9 FEDERALISED WORKMEN'S COMION TITLE IV OF THE FEDERAL COAL MINE HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT OF 1969, AS AMENDED IN 1972

• Jurisdiction: United States

Mine Health and Safety
(Oct 1973)
CHAPTER 9
FEDERALISED WORKMEN'S COMION TITLE IV OF THE FEDERAL COAL MINE HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT OF 1969, AS AMENDED IN 1972
John L. Kilcullen and S.W. Zanolli
Webster and Kilcullen
Washington, D.C.

I. NATURE OF THE BENEFITS UNDER TITLE IV

The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969,¹ as amended² (hereinafter called "the Act" is almost exclusively a preventive statute; that is, it is designed and intended to prevent accidents and disease in the course of coal mine employment. The one significant exception is Title IV of the Act which is captioned "Black Lung Benefits" and which deals with compensation for death or total disability due to a pneumoconiotic occupational disease which has already occurred. The detailed provisions designed to prevent future occurrences of the disease are contained in Title II of the Act.

Pneumoconiosis is a generic term which in the broadest sense means simply a disease of the lung. From a medical standpoint and particularly as applied to coal mining, it has been defined internationally as a "diagnosable disease of the lungs produced by the inhalation of dust, dust being understood to be particulate matter in the solid phase, excluding living organisms." (The Pneumoconiosis, A.J. Lanza, Editor, Grune and Stratton, 1963.)

Title IV of the Act defines pneumoconiosis as a "chronic dust disease of the lung arising out of employment in a coal mine." Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis, commonly referred to as Black Lung, is a specific pneumoconiosis covered under Title IV. Although quite different from Black Lung, Silicosis also appears to come under the Title IV definition. In addition to Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis and Silicosis, other specific diseases which have been determined by regulation of the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare to fall within the Title IV definition of pneumoconiosis are Anthracosilicosis, Anthracosis, Massive Pulmonary Fibrosis, Progressive Massive Fibrosis, and Silicotuberculosis. (20 CFR 410.401(b) . The inanimate dusts involved in these specific diseases are coal dust, dust containing silica or a combination of the two.

Title IV provides for two basic types of compensation for total disability or death due to pneumoconiosis arising out of coal mine employment.

One is a welfare-type benefit, which is financed out of the general tax revenues of the United States and which pertains to death or total disability of a coal miner from "Black Lung" or "Pneumoconiosis," arising out of his total employment in the coal mines of the United States. Claims for this type benefit are provided for in Part B of Title IV, and must be filed prior to July 1, 1973. This type benefit is payable for the life of the miner and his widow and during the period in which others remain as dependents.

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The other type of Black Lung benefit is in the nature of federalized workmen's compensation. It is to be financed in each case by the individual coal mine employer in whose mine the Black Lung case arose, at least in part, to occasion death or disability. In the case where a person or company acquires a coal mine on or after December 30, 1969 — the enactment date of the Act — the successor is liable as well as the prior owner. Individual employers must pay for this benefit under an extension to them of the Federal Longshoremen and Harbor Worker's Act (Public Law 803, 69th Congress — 44 Stat 1423, approved March 4, 1927 — as amended) except for claimants in states which have changed their Workmen's Compensation programs to meet certain minimum federal criteria and who are thus considered by the Secretary of Labor to be "approved." Currently there are no approved states. Claims for the workmen's compensation-type benefit are provided for in Part C to Title IV and can only be filed on or after January 1, 1974. This type benefit is payable to the miner, his dependents and survivors through December 30, 1981, except as the Congress amends the present law.

For a six-month transition period from July 1, 1973, through December 31, 1973, the Black Lung Benefit for claims filed during this period is basically the same as the Part C workmen's compensation-type benefit. The liability of the individual coal miner employer for such a claim is determined as in the case of Part C claims but payments by the particular employer do not begin until January 1, 1974. The federal government assumes the responsibility for payments during the transition period but commencing January 1, 1974, payments become the responsibility of some employer. The transition period is provided for in Section 415 of Part B of Title IV.

The Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare has been given the responsibility under the Act for administering Part B of Title IV except for transition period claims where his sole responsibility is to receive claims which he must then turn over to the Secretary of Labor for processing and adjudication.

The Secretary of Labor has the responsibility under the Act for administering Part C and, with the one minor claims-taking exception noted above, for transition period claims under Section 415 of Part B.

In short, under the Act, administering the welfare-type Black Lung Benefit is the responsibility of the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and administering the workmen compensation-type benefit is the responsibility of the Secretary of Labor.

II. STATUTORY BACKGROUND

A. Prevention of Black Lung in Active Employees

The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 had as its stated purpose "to prevent death and serious physical harm," and "to prevent occupational diseases originating in the nation's coal mines." (The Act, Section 2).

Although federal safety legislation for coal mines had long been in effect, the thrust of such earlier legislation had been in the direction of preventing major disasters such as mine explosions. In the course of its deliberations

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throughout 1969, Congress directed its attention not only to legislation to prevent mine accidents but also prevention of occupational diseases — particularly the lung disease called "Coal Worker's Pneumoconiosis" or "Black Lung" which had only recently become identified as a specific disease.

Both the House bill (H.R. 13950) and the Senate bill (S.2917) as approved by the respective chambers and sent to conference committee contained provisions aimed at preventing chronic diseases of the lung associated with exposure to excessive quantities of respirable dust in coal mining. The two bills were quite similar in requiring the coal mine operator to rigor usly control the amount of respirable dust to which miners would be exposed, and to this end, very stringent dust standards were prescribed. The penalties for not achieving the prescribed dust standards included closure of the mine as well as civil monetary penalties.

In addition to the respirable dust standards, each bill contained detailed requirements for X-raying active miners at periodic intervals, at operator expense, to determine whether such miners had or were developing pneumoconiosis. Each bill also contained provisions whereby an active miner could elect to be transferred to areas of the mine where the dust exposure was less than the prescribed standard if his X-rays indicated the existence of pneumoconiosis. The conference committee accepted these preventive provisions and thereafter the Act.

B. Black Lung Benefits — The Original Title IV

Unlike the relative unanimity of both chambers of Congress with respect to provisions for prevention of future cases of pneumoconiosis, considerable discussion and debate developed respecting the matter of compensation for death and disability due to pneumoconiosis.

1. The Senate Bill (S.2917)

As reported by the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, the Senate bill contained no provisions for compensation for pneumoconiosis. It called only for the Secretary of Interior and the Surgeon General to conduct an accelerated research program aimed at reducing dust concentrations underground, and to conduct research on health conditions of non-miners involved with coal products, and on respiratory and similar devices. (Legislative History, p.39).³

In the course of the floor debates the subject of providing compensation for death or total disability of miners due to "complicated pneumoconiosis" was raised, and following extensive discussion an amendment was adopted providing "Interim Emergency Disability Benefits." Such benefits were to be made payable only for death or total disability from complicated pneumoconiosis which arose out of coal mine employment prior to the effective date of the new law, and were to be financed by federal grants to participating states equal to one-half the amount required to provide the specified money benefits. (Legislative History, pp. 321-349).

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In the process of adopting this amendment, the Senate had before it but took no action on a suggestion which would have provided for individual employer liability for compensation by means of an extension of the Federal Longshoremen and Harbor Worker's Act. (Legislative History, p.258).

2. The House Bill (H.R.13950)

The bill reported to the House by its Committee on Education and Labor contained a provision for compensation payments on account of total disability or death of a miner due to "complicated pneumoconiosis" which arose in the course of his employment in a coal mine, such payments to be made from the general tax revenues of the United States and administered through grants to participating states. It was emphasized that the payments were for retroactive cases only and not for prospective cases. For purposes of determining whether a miner's complicated pneumoconiosis arose out of employment, a rebuttable presumption was to be established based on ten years employment in a coal mine. As stated in the committee report, the...