Records
show the coal mining company formerly run by David Zatezalo retaliated
against a foreman who complained of harassment and unsafe conditions.
The coal mining company run by President Donald Trump’s nominee to be
the nation’s top mining regulator has already come under criticism for
weaknesses in its safety record. It turns out the company was also found
by the government to have illegally retaliated against a foreman who
complained about sexual and ethnic harassment from supervisors, unsafe
conditions and drug use at one of its mines.
The little-noticed case involved a foreman at a mine operated by
Rhino Energy WV. At the time, the president of the mine’s parent
company, Rhino Resource Partners, was David Zatezalo, who is now Trump’s
nominee to run the Mine Safety and Health Administration. A Senate
committee is scheduled to vote on his nomination Wednesday.
In the West Virginia case, Michael Jagodzinski, a foreman at the mine
located near the town of Bolt, complained in 2011 that he was the
target of ethnic and gay slurs. The company illegally retaliated against
him, falsely accusing him of sexual harassment, and then fired him, the
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found. As a result, Rhino
Energy WV entered into a five-year consent decree last year, agreeing to
pay $62,500 to Jagodzinski and implement reforms, including a policy
against harassment and training for all managers and employees on
prohibitions against discrimination and retaliation. The company also
agreed to report how it handles any internal complaints of
discrimination to federal regulators, and post notices about the
settlement at all mine sites.
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