May 24, 2012
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- An administrative law judge has ordered Massey Energy to rehire a miner who claims he was illegally fired for complaining about hazardous conditions at the troubled company's coal mines.
The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration announced the decision today. The agency says miner Ricky Lee Campbell is to get his job back at Virginia-based Massey's Slip Ridge Cedar Grove Mine in Raleigh County.
Massey spokesman Jeff Gillenwater said the decision was not a surprise and predicted the company will prevail eventually because Campbell was acting in an unsafe manner and had damaged equipment.
Campbell briefly worked at Massey's Upper Big Branch mine and transferred to another mine in late March. Twenty-nine men died in an explosion at the mine April 5, the nation's worst coal mining disaster in 40 years.
MSHA says miners need demonstrate only that a claim isn't "frivolously brought" to be reinstated temporarily.
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