Federal Agency Decisions
Federal workers' compensation appeals from the Department of Labor's Employees' Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB), federal-sector labor-relations cases from the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), Longshore Act and Black Lung Benefits Act appeals from the Department of Labor's Benefits Review Board (BRB), precedent decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), environmental permit and penalty appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB), and whistleblower and other labor appeals from the Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board (ARB), each with a plain-English summary, the law it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
No decisions match these filters
Try fewer or different words, check the spelling, or clear the filters to browse everything.
G.R. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Dayton, OH
G.R. (ECAB 18-1490): Travel accident claim returned for factual development
G.R., a Veterans Affairs employee, was in a vehicle accident while traveling to Texas and claimed that he was on an authorized work assignment. OWCP denied his injury claim on performance-of-duty grounds. The Board had previously ordered development of conflicting evidence about whether the trip…
T.J. and Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, CA
T.J. (ECAB 18-1477): Wage-earning capacity modification denied
T.J., a former transportation security screener with an accepted back injury, sought to change a 2016 wage-earning capacity determination based on a surveillance-system monitor job. He argued that his condition and medication use made him unable to work. The Board found that the medical reports did…
B.O. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Indianapolis, IN
B.O. (ECAB 18-0387): Recurrence claim returned for review of surgery evidence
B.O., a postal employee, sought compensation for a recurrence of disability after OWCP had ended his wage-loss benefits. OWCP later authorized cervical fusion surgery but denied his request for merit review without addressing the surgery or its own medical adviser’s opinion linking the procedure to…
V.B. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Glenview, IL
V.B. (ECAB 18-0187): Duplicate injury file returned to OWCP
V.B., a postal carrier, filed a second claim about injuries from a 2012 fall that OWCP had already accepted in another file. The Board found that the second file duplicated the first incident. It set aside OWCP’s denial, directed OWCP to move the new medical evidence to the original claim file…
United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Malcom Randall VA Medical Center, Gainesville, Florida and American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2779
Malcom Randall VA Medical Center and AFGE Local 2779 (FLRA 0-AR-5395): Investigation-record disclosure upheld
The union grieved the VA medical center's failure to provide employees and union representatives with recordings, transcripts, and other material from administrative investigations. An arbitrator found that the labor agreement required those disclosures and directed the agency to comply going…
U.S. Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, 66 Air Base Group, Hanscom Air Base, Massachusetts and International Association of Fire Fighters, AFL-CIO, Local F-78
Hanscom Air Base and IAFF Local F-78 (FLRA BN-RP-18-0007): Confidential-employee exclusions upheld
The firefighters' union asked the Authority to place two assistant fire chiefs and two station captains in its bargaining unit. A regional director excluded them as confidential employees because they attended management meetings, received advance information about labor-relations positions, and…
T.L. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Chanute, KS
T.L. (ECAB 18-1729): Back condition claim denied for insufficient medical reasoning
T.L., a postal city carrier, claimed that repeated lifting, carrying, bending, and other delivery duties caused lumbar conditions. OWCP denied her occupational disease claim. The Board found that her physician diagnosed back conditions and attributed them to cumulative work activities without…
L.C. and U.S. Postal Service, Grand Central Station Post Office, New York, NY
L.C. (ECAB 18-1707): Later knee and back claim denied
L.C., a postal clerk with an earlier accepted back injury, claimed that later lobby duties involving standing and walking caused knee problems and worsened her back condition. OWCP denied the later occupational disease claim. The Board found that her physician’s checked form answers and broader…
M.W. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, City of Industry, CA
M.W. (ECAB 18-1624): Later wrist and arthritis claim denied
M.W., a postal carrier, had an earlier accepted claim for bilateral wrist tendinitis and later filed another occupational disease claim involving wrist symptoms and rheumatoid arthritis. OWCP denied the later claim. The Board found that most medical notes gave diagnoses without a causal opinion…
N.L. and Department of Homeland Security, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, San Diego, CA
N.L. (ECAB 18-1575): Expense reports did not reopen back injury claim
N.L., an immigration enforcement agent, sought reconsideration after OWCP denied his back injury claim arising from a weight-room incident. OWCP had accepted the incident but found the medical evidence insufficient to link it to the diagnosed condition. With reconsideration, he submitted expense…
S.B. and U.S. Postal Service, Conway Post Office, Conway, SC
S.B. (ECAB 18-1535): Repeated commuting argument did not reopen claim
S.B., a postal rural carrier associate, had a vehicle accident while driving to work in her personal car. She sought reconsideration of the ruling that the accident was outside the performance of duty, arguing that she often used her own car for mail delivery. The Board found that OWCP and the…
I.S. and Department of the Air Force, JBSA-Randolph Air Force Base, San Antonio, TX
I.S. (ECAB 18-1521): Late reconsideration of exposure claim denied
I.S., a former Air Force aircraft sheet-metal apprentice, sought reconsideration of OWCP’s ruling that her occupational disease claim involving alleged chemical exposures was untimely. OWCP received the request more than one year after its last merits decision. The Board found that her account of…
W.B. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Rochester Hills, MI
W.B. (ECAB 18-1346): Repeated medical reports did not reopen claim
W.B., a postal rural carrier with accepted ankle and other conditions, sought reconsideration of an OWCP decision concerning continuing residuals and disability. She submitted new reports describing symptoms and imaging findings. The Board found that they were substantially similar to reports OWCP…
R.B. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Braintree, MA
R.B. (ECAB 18-0945): Repeated knee evidence did not reopen claim
R.B., a postal letter carrier, sought reconsideration of OWCP’s denial of his bilateral knee occupational disease claim. His attorney again argued that the medical record linked his knee conditions to years of delivery work and submitted another physician report restating that causal view. The…
American Federation of Government Employees, National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, AFL-CIO and United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service
Food Inspection Council and USDA FSIS (FLRA WA-CO-17-0402): Union ordered to bargain
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service requested negotiations for a successor labor agreement and submitted proposed ground rules. The union refused to bargain because the agency had not provided all substantive proposals with its request. The Authority held that the existing agreement allowed…
C.L. and Department of State, Los Angeles Passport Agency, Los Angeles, CA
C.L. (ECAB 18-1732): Arm injury claim denied without medical diagnosis
C.L., a passport specialist, stumbled and struck her left arm against a metal cabinet at work. OWCP accepted that the incident occurred but denied her injury claim. The only medical report described arm and hand pain without a diagnosis or an opinion linking a condition to the incident. The Board…
D.A. and U.S. Postal Service, Processing & Distribution Center, Kearny, NJ
D.A. (ECAB 18-1726): Occupational shoulder, wrist, and back claim denied
D.A., a postal clerk, claimed that repetitive mail handling caused right shoulder, wrist, hand, and lower back conditions. The Board had previously upheld denials of this claim. In this appeal, the new evidence consisted of a physician assistant’s report and diagnostic studies. The Board found that…
M.B. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Ralph H. Johnson Medical Center, Charleston, SC
M.B. (ECAB 18-1644): Two requests to reopen injury claim denied
M.B., a Veterans Affairs practical nurse, sought reconsideration of a denied claim involving a lumbar condition after an incident with a hospital resident. In two requests, she wrote that she had already supplied the necessary medical evidence. The Board found that her letters did not provide new…
P.W. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Chillicothe Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Chillicothe, OH
P.W. (ECAB 18-1636): Later reports did not reopen disability claim
P.W., a Veterans Affairs nursing assistant with accepted neck, shoulder, and back conditions, sought reconsideration of a disability claim for February 2016 through February 2017. Her new physician reports concerned later dates and did not assess her work capacity during the claimed period. A later…
S.A. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Denver, CO
S.A. (ECAB 18-1481): Two reconsideration denials affirmed
S.A., a former postal supervisor, sought reconsideration of a denied occupational disease claim involving leg, foot, and hip conditions. She argued twice that an unopposed medical opinion required OWCP to develop more evidence. The Board found that the arguments did not identify legal error or a…
M.C. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Jesse Brown Medical Center, Chicago, IL
M.C. (ECAB 18-1354): Emotional condition claim denied over disputed work event
M.C., a Veterans Affairs health technician, claimed she had a panic attack after seeing a bedbug on her gown while helping a patient. The Board found that encountering a bedbug during patient care could be a compensable work factor, but the record did not establish that it occurred. Earlier witness…
V.H. and U.S. Postal Service, Rockaway Park Post Office, Rockaway Park, NY
V.H. (ECAB 18-1282): Total disability and added knee conditions denied
V.H., a postal carrier, fell at work and received acceptance for contusions of both knees. She sought total disability compensation beginning October 28, 2016 and asked OWCP to add other knee conditions. The Board found that her treating physician’s reports did not adequately explain how the fall…
E.R. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, New York, NY
E.R. (ECAB 18-1235): Claimed work incident not established
E.R., a postal window clerk, claimed a back, leg, and ankle injury on April 26, 2016 from bending and standing at work. Her employer’s leave record showed that she was away from work that day. The Board found that her evidence did not establish she performed the alleged duties on the claimed date…
Barr v. CTL Transportation, LLC, Comcar Industries, Inc., and HireRight Solutions, Inc.
Barr v. CTL Transportation, LLC (DOL ARB 2018-0034): procedural interlocutory appeal dismissed
Alfred Barr sought immediate Board review of procedural orders entered during his Surface Transportation Assistance Act case. While that request was pending, the ALJ dismissed the underlying complaint on the merits. Barr did not timely appeal that final decision, so it became the Secretary of…
T.K. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Milwaukee, WI
T.K. (ECAB 18-1813): Injury denial affirmed for lack of medical causation
T.K., a Postal Service carrier, reported twisting her ankle, knees, and back after stepping into a hole while working in June 2017. OWCP accepted that the workplace incident occurred but denied a compensable injury. The Board found that the treating physician listed several spinal conditions…
B.E. and Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, College Park, GA
B.E. (ECAB 18-1785): Hearing-loss schedule award denial affirmed
B.E., a federal air marshal and firearms instructor, had an accepted work-related hearing loss from noise exposure. He sought a schedule award for permanent impairment. The audiogram used by OWCP’s medical adviser produced a zero-percent ratable loss in each ear under the applicable method. The…
R.W. and Tennessee Valley Authority, Widows Creek Fossil Plant, Stevenson, AL
R.W. (ECAB 18-1714): Hearing-loss reconsideration returned for merits review
R.W., a Tennessee Valley Authority boilermaker, claimed hearing loss and tinnitus from years of workplace noise. OWCP denied his claim after a doctor linked his asymmetrical hearing loss to shooting guns. R.W. argued on reconsideration that he had used a shotgun to clear boiler clinkers as part of…
D.C. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Bronx, NY
D.C. (ECAB 18-1664): Vehicle-collision injury claim sent back for medical review
D.C., a Postal Service carrier, reported neck, back, knee, and shoulder injuries after a taxi struck his delivery vehicle at work. OWCP accepted the collision but denied the claimed medical conditions. The Board found that most reports did not adequately explain causation, while an uncontradicted…
M.S. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Indianapolis, IN
M.S. (ECAB 18-1631): Late reconsideration request denied
M.S., a Postal Service mail handler with an accepted back injury, sought wage-loss compensation for disability beginning in February 2016. OWCP denied that claim in September 2016, and he requested reconsideration in December 2017. The Board found that the request came after the one-year deadline…
I.L. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Brooksville, FL
I.L. (ECAB 18-1399): Suitable-work benefit termination reversed
I.L., a former Postal Service supervisor, had an accepted back injury and received wage-loss compensation. OWCP terminated her wage-loss and schedule-award entitlement after she declined a modified job offer that it considered suitable. Her treating physician and OWCP’s second-opinion physician…
J.C. and Department of Veterans Affairs, S.S. Stratton Veterans Medical Center, Albany, NY
J.C. (ECAB 18-1390): Back injury denial affirmed for lack of medical link
J.C., a Veterans Affairs nursing assistant, reported back pain after transferring a patient at work in March 2017. OWCP accepted that the transfer happened but denied his claim for a work-related back condition. The Board found that an emergency physician diagnosed a strain without explaining its…
A.J. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Richmond, VA
A.J. (ECAB 18-1152): Retirement-benefit overpayment sent back for proof
A.J., a former Veterans Affairs supply clerk, received FECA wage-loss compensation after a 2009 fall at work. OWCP said he had also received federal retirement benefits and owed $15,521.26, but its record did not establish how much the retirement system paid him during the alleged overlap. The…
Toletha Eleryan v. Regional NAF Personnel Office/Bureau of Naval Personnel and Contract Claims Services, Incorporated
Eleryan v. Regional NAF Personnel Office (BRB 18-0529): attorney fee award reversed
Toletha Eleryan and her employer appealed a judge's award of $912.50 in attorney fees for her successful defense against a forfeiture claim. The Board's majority held that her lawyer could not receive an employer-paid fee because Eleryan obtained no additional disability or medical benefits. It…
Cecilia R. Coon v. Omni Air International, Incorporated and Starr Indemnity & Liability Company
Coon v. Omni Air (BRB 18-0265): Defense Base Act coverage affirmed
Cecilia Coon was injured in a car accident while returning from mandatory drug and alcohol testing for her airline job. Omni Air argued that the Defense Base Act did not cover the injury because she was not then assigned to a Department of Defense flight. The Board's majority held that the testing…
Keith L. Clegg v. New Warwick Mining Company and The Fire & Casualty Company of Connecticut
Clegg v. New Warwick Mining (BRB 18-0240): black lung benefits award affirmed
New Warwick Mining appealed an award of black lung benefits to Keith Clegg. The judge credited Clegg with 20 years of underground coal mine work and found him totally disabled by a respiratory impairment. The Board upheld the judge's reliance on medical opinion evidence despite nonqualifying…
Chester Uscio v. Wyoming Pocahontas Land Company
Uscio v. Wyoming Pocahontas Land (BRB 18-0063): employer liability for benefits affirmed
Wyoming Pocahontas Land appealed a black lung benefits award to Chester Uscio. It challenged only its designation as the employer responsible for paying the benefits. The Board held that the employer had not developed evidence or identified witnesses about a possible later coal mine employer while…
United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine and National Association of Agriculture Employees
USDA Plant Protection and NAAE (FLRA 0-AR-5380): Qualification remedy upheld
USDA concluded that seven plant-protection officers lacked required college credits ten years after their positions were moved into a new occupational series. An arbitrator applied an OPM in-service placement rule and ordered the agency to treat all seven as qualified, promote one officer, and pay…
Jessie Hurst (Widow of Clarence Hurst) v. Gatliff Coal Company
Hurst v. Gatliff Coal (BRB 18-0340): survivor benefits denial affirmed
Jessie Hurst appealed the denial of survivor benefits following the death of her husband, coal miner Clarence Hurst. The judge accepted 18 years of coal mine work but found no proof of a totally disabling respiratory impairment, so the statutory presumption of death due to pneumoconiosis did not…
Dwayne M. Hopkins v. Humphreys Enterprises, Incorporated
Hopkins v. Humphreys Enterprises (BRB 18-0230): black lung benefits award affirmed
Humphreys Enterprises appealed a black lung benefits award to Dwayne Hopkins. The judge found that Hopkins had 17 years of surface mine work with regular coal dust exposure and a totally disabling respiratory impairment. The Board upheld the finding that this work was sufficiently similar to…
Claris I. Fite Rose v. Director, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs
Fite Rose v. OWCP (BRB 17-0421): reconsideration denied
Claris Fite Rose requested reconsideration of an earlier Benefits Review Board decision. The Board's order states that no panel member voted to vacate or modify that decision. It denied the motion for reconsideration. This short order does not state the facts or outcome of the underlying benefits…
Edward Rodgers v. Consolidation Coal Company
Rodgers v. Consolidation Coal (BRB 17-0018): employer reconsideration denied
Consolidation Coal Company requested reconsideration of an earlier Benefits Review Board decision in Edward Rodgers's black lung case. The Board's order states that no panel member voted to vacate or modify that decision. It denied the employer's motion for reconsideration. This order does not…
Apollo Auto Sales & Service, Inc.
Late contests denied
OSHA issued Apollo Auto citations with $6,652 in proposed penalties and later issued a $25,868 failure-to-abate notification. Apollo Auto missed both 15-working-day contest deadlines and filed its contest months after receiving the original citation. The judge found no deception by OSHA, excusable…
Wynnewood Refining Co., LLC
Twelve refinery process-safety violations affirmed
A boiler exploded during a refinery turnaround at Wynnewood's Oklahoma facility, killing two employees. The Commission held that OSHA's process safety management standard applied because the boiler was interconnected with covered refinery processes and was located where a release could involve…
Secretary of Labor v. James C. Scott and Donnie B. Thomas, employed by Mill Branch Coal Corp.
Secretary of Labor v. James C. Scott and Donnie B. Thomas (FMSHRC VA 2018-103): Secretary ordered to explain 36-month delay
MSHA sought individual penalties against James Scott and Donnie Thomas for allegedly knowingly failing to report a mine inundation within 15 minutes. The penalty notices were issued about 36 months after the underlying order and 20 months after the operator's liability had been settled. Judge…
Lela J. Clark (on behalf of and widow of Ralph L. Clark) v. Central Ohio Coal Company
Clark v. Central Ohio Coal (BRB 18-0136 and 18-0137): miner and survivor awards affirmed
Central Ohio Coal appealed awards in Ralph Clark's miner claim and his widow Lela Clark's survivor claim. The judge credited 36 years of qualifying coal mine work and found a totally disabling respiratory impairment, triggering the statutory presumption. The Board upheld that finding and the…
Lela J. Clark (on behalf of and widow of Ralph L. Clark) v. Central Ohio Coal Company
Clark v. Central Ohio Coal (BRB 18-0136 and 18-0137): miner and survivor awards affirmed
Central Ohio Coal appealed awards in Ralph Clark's miner claim and his widow Lela Clark's survivor claim. The judge credited 36 years of qualifying coal mine work and found a totally disabling respiratory impairment, triggering the statutory presumption. The Board upheld that finding and the…
M.R. and U.S. Postal Service, Network Distribution Center, Warrendale, PA
18-1774 (ECAB): Postal worker’s shoulder injury claim denied for unclear incident account
M.R., a postal mail handler assistant, claimed a right shoulder injury at work. The record gave different accounts involving a stuck container gate, a rusted shelf, or a large rack. OWCP asked him for a fuller account, but he did not provide one. The Board held that the incident had not been…
S.M. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford, MA
18-1574 (ECAB): Claimed chair fall during mediation not established
S.M., a Veterans Affairs boiler plant operator, said he injured his back when a chair rolled away as he sat down during a mediation meeting. Three witnesses described a different sequence, including that he appeared aware of the moving chair and lowered himself to the floor. The Board found their…
W.J. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Little Rock, AR
18-1376 (ECAB): Wage loss termination reversed after incomplete medical development
W.J., a postal passport clerk, received wage-loss compensation for accepted right shoulder and median nerve conditions. OWCP ended those payments after a second opinion examiner said he could work in a rehabilitation position. The examiner also recommended a new MRI, which OWCP did not obtain…
S.R. and Department of the Air Force, Air Force National Guard-Title 32, Tacoma, WA
18-1307 (ECAB): Four percent right arm impairment award upheld
S.R., an aircraft mechanic, injured his right shoulder after slipping while loading aircraft equipment. OWCP awarded compensation for four percent permanent impairment of his right arm, and he sought a larger award. The Board rejected the higher rating from OWCP’s second-opinion physician, Dr…
J.R. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Anaheim, CA
18-1305 (ECAB): Right foot claim not reopened for merits review
J.R., a postal letter carrier, attributed a right foot condition to years of walking and standing at work. After OWCP denied his claim, he sought reconsideration. The Board found that his request identified no new legal error or argument, and his medical report repeated evidence OWCP had already…
R.S. and Department of the Army, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD
18-0969 (ECAB): Chair fall established; medical causation sent back
R.S., a radiology supervisor, said her office chair rolled away as she sat down, causing her to fall and hurt her lower back and right shoulder. OWCP denied her claim on the ground that the incident itself had not been established. The Board found her account consistent with her supervisor’s…
C.W. and Department of the Air Force, Headquarters Air Force Space Command, El Segundo, CA
18-0618 (ECAB): Right knee claim expansion and schedule award denied
C.W., an Air Force budget technician, sought to expand her accepted knee claim from temporary to permanent aggravation of osteoarthritis and meniscus derangement. She also sought a schedule award for lasting impairment. The Board credited a medical opinion attributing her degeneration to factors…
Quick Transport of Arkansas, LLC
Vacuum-truck explosion citation vacated
Quick Transport drivers used a propane torch to thaw frozen valves on vacuum-truck trailers used to haul produced water from oil and gas operations. An explosion occurred while a driver was preparing a trailer, and the driver died. The Commission majority found that the Secretary did not provide…
Knight Hawk Coal, LLC v. Secretary of Labor
Evidence limits denied in ventilation-plan case
Knight Hawk contested MSHA's revocation of its ventilation plan for perimeter mining at the Prairie Eagle Underground Mine. Before hearing, the Secretary sought to exclude evidence about other mines, information not presented to the district manager during negotiations, and testimony from a former…
John A. Glitsky v. CQ Energy Partners, Limited and Rockwood Casualty Insurance Company
Glitsky v. CQ Energy Partners (BRB 18-0249): benefits award returned for rebuttal review
CQ Energy Partners appealed a black lung benefits award to John Glitsky. The Board left intact the judge's finding that Glitsky invoked the statutory presumption based on qualifying mine work and total respiratory disability. It held that the judge had applied the wrong burden in assessing whether…
Robert K. Hawkinberry v. The Monongalia County Coal Company
Hawkinberry v. Monongalia County Coal (BRB 18-0228): Benefits denial reversed and award ordered
Robert Hawkinberry proved sixteen years of underground coal mine work and a totally disabling respiratory impairment, which invoked the statutory presumption that his disability was due to pneumoconiosis. The administrative law judge denied benefits after finding the employer had rebutted that…
Vadis Fields v. Aberry Coal Incorporated and Security Insurance Company of Hartford
Fields v. Aberry Coal (BRB 18-0107): black lung benefits award affirmed
Aberry Coal appealed an award of black lung benefits to Vadis Fields after an earlier Board remand. The employer argued that his claim was filed too late and that he lacked 15 years of coal mine employment needed for the statutory presumption. The Board upheld the judge's finding that an earlier…
G.G. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Fords, NJ
18-1788 (ECAB): Left knee disability recurrence not established
G.G., a postal letter carrier, had an accepted left knee injury from 2011 and later returned to full duty. He claimed he became totally disabled again in April 2016. The Board found that his medical evidence did not explain how the accepted injury caused disability during the claimed period. It…
G.S. and U.S. Postal Service, Network Distribution Center, Atlanta, GA
18-1696 (ECAB): Cervical condition after forklift incident not linked to work
G.S., a postal equipment operator, struck a concrete pillar while operating a forklift and fell to the floor. He sought benefits for a cervical condition after receiving hospital care and surgery. The Board found that the medical reports did not adequately explain how the accepted incident caused…
What these documents are
- The agencies: Federal workers' compensation appeals from the Department of Labor's Employees' Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB), federal-sector labor-relations cases from the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), Longshore Act and Black Lung Benefits Act appeals from the Department of Labor's Benefits Review Board (BRB), precedent decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), environmental permit and penalty appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB), and whistleblower and other labor appeals from the Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board (ARB). Each decision page names its agency.
- Commission, Board and Authority decisions: Rulings by the agency's highest review level (the Commission at OSHRC and FMSHRC, the Authority at FLRA, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Administrative Review Board at Labor, and the Environmental Appeals Board at EPA). These are citable as precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by the agency's Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order that binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent: under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j) at OSHRC, and after the 40-day window of 30 U.S.C. § 823(d)(1) at FMSHRC.
- Why finality matters: Every page here says which kind of decision you are reading, so you know whether it is precedent you can cite or a final order that only shows how one judge ruled on one set of facts.
- Where they come from: Every page links the official public release from the deciding agency, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.