Labor Coalition Sues HHS to Stop Safety Research Agency Cuts

A coalition of unions representing healthcare, education, mining, and manufacturing workers is seeking a court order to stop the permanent termination of workers at the federal agency responsible for researching work-related injuries.

Public Citizen Litigation Group, along with the AFL-CIO, is asking the US District Court for the District of Columbia to declare the staff cuts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are unlawful. The plaintiffs seek an injunction to block the Department of Health and Human Services from placing NIOSH employees on administrative leave and eventually terminating them.

The action comes as a West Virginia federal judge ordered Tuesday that HHS restore all laid-off NIOSH workers who conduct health surveillance of coal miners in Morgantown, W.Va. HHS declined to comment on pending litigation.

NIOSH, which is part of HHS, notified workers on April 1 that nearly 900 of them would be let go as part of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s plans to cut 10,000 employees across his agency.

The HHS cuts threaten the lives of workers who depend on NIOSH’s congressionally mandated work, including the certification of respirators, conducting critical mine safety research, and investigating workplaces to identify and mitigate exposure to toxins, according to the complaint.

“The Trump administration’s rash move to decimate the NIOSH workforce is not only unlawful but shortsighted,” Bonnie Robin-Vergeer, a Public Citizen Litigation Group attorney and lead counsel in the case, said in a statement.

The labor coalition is also seeking a court order for HHS to resume all activities that NIOSH performed before placing workers on administrative leave.

Public Citizen represents the unions.

The case is National Nurses United et al v. Kennedy Jr., D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-01538, 5/14/25.