Clinchfield Coal Company v. Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, United Mine Workers of America, Intervenor

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge WILLIAMS.

STEPHEN F. WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge:

The Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission has directed the petitioner, a coal mine operator, to pay one week’s salary, plus interest, to employees idled by a government-ordered shutdown later tied to the operator’s health and safety violations. We uphold the Commission’s rulings on both liability and interest.

A

Late in the evening of June 21, 1983, an explosion killed seven miners and injured three others at Clinchfield’s McClure mine in Dickerson County, Virginia. At 3:42 a.m. on June 22, an…