HHS Rehires 100 Fired Workplace Safety Research Agency Workers

The Department of Health and Human Services will permanently restore the jobs of 110 people fired from the agency responsible for researching work-related injuries after lobbying from a key Republican senator and a union.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who heads the Senate Appropriations subcommittee responsible for HHS funding, said in a statementthat HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told her that employees in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s office located in Morgantown, W.Va. will get their jobs back.

The head of the union that represents NIOSH workers in Morgantown called the move a “very positive step” but noted more than 110 jobs were cut from the office during recent reductions in force.

“We, at this time, do not know who or what has been called back, but we know that this is not the entirety of what was RIF’d originally,” said Cathy Tinney-Zara, American Federation of Government Employees Local 3430 president.

The HHS and Capito’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

NIOSH, part of the HHS, notified workers April 1 that nearly 900 staffers across the country would be let go as part of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s plans to cut 10,000 employees across his agency. This triggered bipartisan pushback over concerns the cuts could inhibit the government from effectively responding to occupational hazards.

More than 500 jobs are being eliminated across NIOSH field offices in West Virginia, Washington, and Pennsylvania, representatives from the American Federation of Government Employees told Bloomberg Law earlier this month. These offices are part of the agency’s mine-site observation and compliance sampling data work, which informs studies on mining technology.

About 40 employees in the Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program and Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program were temporarily returned in late April.