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.
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Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and AFGE Local 1138
Wright-Patterson union-representation complaint dismissed (FLRA 5-CA-715)
An Air Force employee requested union representation during an April investigatory meeting. The judge found that a later May counseling meeting continued that investigation and that the agency denied her representation right. The Authority disagreed: no information or defense was sought at the May…
Old Ben Coal Company
Electrical equipment citation dismissed after air-flow finding
MSHA alleged that two nonpermissible electrical power connections at Old Ben Coal Company's No. 27 mine violated 30 C.F.R. § 75.507 because they were in return air. The Secretary sought $1,200 for each alleged violation. Judge William Fauver found that properly performed smoke-tube tests showed…
Davis Coal Company
Thirteen violations affirmed with $420 in penalties
Davis Coal Company and MSHA submitted five consolidated penalty cases concerning the Marie No. 1 Mine on stipulated facts, leaving Davis Coal's ability to pay as the main disputed issue. Judge George A. Koutras affirmed an electrical-cable protection order, citations for missed respirable-dust…
Roger E. Sammons v. Mine Services Co.
Discrimination complaint dismissed
Roger Sammons claimed that Mine Services referred him back to a union hiring panel because he raised safety concerns about boom truck operators, safety equipment, and steel connection work. Judge George A. Koutras found that the referral rested on the superintendent's belief that Sammons could not…
NTEU Chapter 217 and HHS Region VII
Credit-hours negotiability appeal dismissed as moot (FLRA O-NG-429)
NTEU Chapter 217 appealed a dispute over a credit-hours proposal under the 1978 flexible-work-schedules law. That law expired during the appeal, and a materially different successor law took effect. The Authority found the appeal moot and dismissed it without deciding negotiability. It said the…
AFGE Locals 2670 and 1504 and Army and Air Force Exchange Service
Exchange employee meal proposals held negotiable (FLRA O-NG-366, O-NG-409)
Two AFGE locals proposed increasing the value of free meals for food-service employees at Army and Air Force exchanges. The exchange service argued that the proposals interfered with its budget and conflicted with an agency regulation capping meal value. The Authority found no showing of a…
AFGE Local 3525 and Justice Department Board of Immigration Appeals
BIA employee shuttle proposal negotiable; three proposals dismissed (FLRA O-NG-171)
AFGE Local 3525 offered four proposals after the Board of Immigration Appeals moved 32 employees. The Authority held that a proposed shuttle between the main and satellite offices concerned employee working conditions and was within the duty to bargain. It dismissed review of three other proposals…
EEOC Houston and AFGE Local 3637
EEOC separation grievance arbitrability award upheld (FLRA O-AR-346)
An EEOC employee challenged a separation for alleged job abandonment. The arbitrator found the grievance excluded while a Merit Systems Protection Board appeal route existed, but said the parties could later ask him to hear the merits if the Board declined the appeal. EEOC argued that this exceeded…
AFGE Local 2943 and Loring Air Force Base
Herbicide environmental-pay award upheld (FLRA O-AR-272)
An arbitrator awarded a Loring Air Force Base employee a four-percent environmental differential for spraying herbicides. The Air Force challenged the award under personnel rules and the Back Pay Act. The Authority found that the arbitrator had evaluated the exposure under the governing schedule…
Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow and AFGE Local 1482
Barstow suspension award upheld (FLRA O-AR-260)
A Marine Corps Logistics Base employee received a three-day suspension for leaving his worksite without permission. The arbitrator found the suspension consistent with the agreement and denied the grievance. AFGE Local 1482 objected to the arbitrator’s treatment of evidence and the investigator’s…
Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Tidewater Virginia Federal Employees Metal Trades Council
Norfolk seminar official-time award upheld (FLRA O-AR-255)
The union requested eight hours of official time for 75 representatives to attend a labor-relations seminar. Norfolk Naval Shipyard allowed a shorter excused absence for five representatives, and an arbitrator denied the union’s grievance. The union challenged his reading of the agreement and…
Bureau of Prisons and AFGE Local 3696
Butner supervisory-promotion grievance ruling upheld (FLRA O-AR-251)
A grievance challenged procedures for filling a supervisory position at the federal correctional institute in Butner. The arbitrator held that the agreement excluded the dispute from its grievance procedure. AFGE Local 3696 argued that another contract provision covered promotion complaints. The…
Service Employees International Union Local 200 and VA Medical Center
VA temporary-promotion start date upheld (FLRA O-AR-236)
A VA employee performed higher-grade duties before a temporary GS-7 position was established and approved. The arbitrator denied her claim for an earlier temporary-promotion date. The union alleged that management had delayed establishing the position. The Authority found the arbitrator had…
AFGE Local 2250 and VA Hospital Muskogee
Muskogee hospital reassignment grievance ruling upheld (FLRA O-AR-227)
AFGE Local 2250 grieved a VA hospital’s choice to fill a position by reassignment rather than through its merit promotion plan. The arbitrator found the position outside the bargaining unit and the grievance outside the agreement’s coverage. The union argued that he should have reached the merits…
SSA Region VI, Galveston District and NFFE Local 1823
SSA mileage-reporting order narrowed to Region VI (FLRA 6-CA-315)
SSA Region VI ordered Galveston District employees to change a long-standing way of reporting travel mileage without notice or bargaining with NFFE. The judge found violations by both the region and district. The Authority agreed that Region VI violated the bargaining duty, but dismissed the…
Social Security Administration and AFGE
SSA staffing reductions required union notice and bargaining (FLRA 5-CA-388)
SSA reduced staffing and changed part-time employees’ shifts and hours in its Chicago field offices, then placed some employees on leave without pay. AFGE received no advance notice or chance to bargain. The Authority held that SSA had to bargain over implementation procedures and arrangements for…
Lime Products Corporation
Crane parking violation affirmed; defect charge vacated
MSHA cited Lime Products after a crane rolled down a grade at its Warren quarry and struck a loader, seriously injuring the loader operator. Judge Michael A. Lasher Jr. found that clutch slippage did not prove the crane had an equipment defect, and he vacated the related citation and order. He…
Charles H. Bundy v. Benham Coal, Inc.
Discrimination complaint over recall to dusty job denied
Charles Bundy had transferred to a less dusty job after a medical evaluation indicated pneumoconiosis. When Benham Coal recalled laid-off employees, he sought back pay for the interval during which his seniority would have qualified him for an underground roof bolter position that the company would…
Lehman Gilliam v. Blue Diamond Mining, Inc.
Discrimination complaint denied after maintenance foreman's discharge
Lehman Gilliam, a maintenance foreman, claimed that Blue Diamond Mining discharged him because he objected to proposed canopy alterations and because management suspected he had requested an MSHA inspection. Judge Richard C. Steffey examined the overnight repair work and found that Gilliam arrived…
Great Western Electric Company
Ladder fall protection citation affirmed
An MSHA inspector cited Great Western Electric after a construction worker installed a light fixture from a ladder without a safety belt or line at the FMC Mine. The parties agreed that the worker stood 12 feet above the floor, reached outside the ladder rails, and used both hands on the fixture…
Naval Air Station Oceana and Tidewater Virginia Federal Employees Metal Trades Council
Oceana environmental-pay grievance allowed to proceed (FLRA O-AR-352)
An arbitrator found timely a grievance over environmental differential pay at Naval Air Station Oceana. The Navy challenged only that arbitrability ruling. The Authority found its exceptions disputed the arbitrator’s reading of the agreement’s filing limits and denied them.
Fort Drum Army and NAGE Local R2-61
Fort Drum arbitrability award upheld (FLRA O-AR-323)
Fort Drum challenged three grievances as filed with the wrong person or after the contract deadline. An arbitrator found strict enforcement of the filing rules unreasonable in the circumstances and held the grievances arbitrable. The Authority treated the Army’s exception as disagreement with the…
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Hawaii Federal Employees Metal Trades Council
Pearl Harbor late-grievance award upheld (FLRA O-AR-282)
An arbitrator dismissed a Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard grievance because it was filed after the agreement’s deadline. The union argued that the ruling violated national labor policy and was legally unsupported. The Authority found that these objections only disputed the arbitrator’s application of…
AFGE Local 1395 and Social Security Administration
SSA transit-strike leave restoration upheld (FLRA O-AR-173)
A Social Security employee used annual leave after missing work during a local transit strike. An arbitrator found the agency had misapplied its rules for excused absences and ordered the leave restored. SSA argued that administrative leave was discretionary and restoration conflicted with the Back…
Mettiki Coal Corporation
Six violations sustained with $3,585 in penalties
MSHA and Mettiki Coal litigated eleven consolidated contest and penalty dockets involving the Gobbler's Knob Mine. Judge William Fauver upheld violations involving unsupported roof areas, a large coal and dust accumulation, a hand-held drill fitted with a locking control that could run without…
Matter of Exame
Background evidence required a fair asylum hearing
The Board reviewed a Haitian applicant's appeal after an immigration judge denied asylum and found him excludable because he lacked a valid immigrant visa. The immigration judge had categorically rejected background evidence about conditions in Haiti because it did not identify the applicant. The…
NTEU and IRS Ogden Service Center
Ogden IRS shift-proposal appeal dismissed as moot (FLRA O-NG-714)
NTEU appealed the IRS Ogden Service Center’s allegation that proposed shifts and tours of duty conflicted with management rights. The agency later withdrew its nonnegotiability allegation. The Authority found no remaining dispute and dismissed the appeal as moot without deciding the proposals’…
AFGE National Council of EEOC Locals and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Two EEOC contracting proposals negotiable; job-security proposal rejected (FLRA O-NG-314)
AFGE proposed three provisions concerning EEOC contracting out. The Authority held negotiable a commitment to follow applicable contracting rules and a procedure giving the union notice and a chance to respond. It rejected a third proposal requiring reassignment, training, or other steps to protect…
SSA Mid-America Program Service Center and AFGE Local 1336
Kansas City SSA local-shift bargaining complaint dismissed (FLRA 7-CA-502)
AFGE Local 1336 asked the SSA Mid-America Program Service Center to bargain over rotating computer-room shifts. SSA refused. The Authority held that after certification of a consolidated national bargaining unit, the bargaining relationship existed at the national level and local management had no…
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and NTEU Chapter 88
ATF ordered to restore hearing-preparation official time (FLRA 5-CA-1290)
Four ATF employees used annual leave to meet Authority field attorneys preparing unfair labor practice hearings. ATF had denied their requests for official time. The Authority held that the field attorneys could deem participation necessary under the statute’s proceeding-time provision. It found an…
Consolidation Coal Company
Distribution amendment to earlier decision
Judge William Fauver issued an amendment to his August 25, 1982 decision in two Consolidation Coal penalty proceedings. The amendment says it changes the decision's distribution, but the released page contains no replacement distribution after that statement. It does not revise the merits ruling or…
William A. Haro v. Magma Copper Company
Late review petition dismissed
William Haro sought Commission review of an administrative law judge's July 23, 1982 decision in his case against Magma Copper Company. The Mine Act allowed 30 days to file a petition, and Commission rules made filing effective when the petition was received. Haro's counsel mailed the petition on…
Secretary of Labor (MSHA) v. Southern Ohio Coal Company
Southern Ohio Coal Company (FMSHRC VINC 79-227-P): Roof support violations upheld, penalties reduced
Two miners removed temporary roof supports by hand and traveled under unsupported roof at Southern Ohio Coal's mine; a roof fall killed one of them. The Commission affirmed two violations of the roof control standard and held the operator liable for its employees' acts. It agreed that the foreman…
Secretary of Labor (MSHA) v. Florence Mining Company and related operators
Florence Mining Company and related operators (FMSHRC PITT 77-15 and related dockets): Automatic coupler notices reinstated
MESA, MSHA’s predecessor, issued six notices to North American Coal subsidiaries after their rubber-rail mine cars were operated without automatic couplers. The judge had held that the coupler rule did not apply because the cars spent much of their time off track. The Commission reversed, finding…
NFFE Local 1430 and Navy Northern Division, Philadelphia
Navy incentive-awards petition dismissed for wrong forum (FLRA O-NG-659)
The Navy sought to extend a trial procedure for approving incentive awards, but NFFE Local 1430 said the existing agreement did not require it to reopen bargaining. The union filed a negotiability appeal. The Authority held that the dispute concerned a duty to bargain or the interpretation of the…
Charleston Naval Shipyard and Planners, Estimators and Progressmen’s Association Local 8
Charleston shipyard arbitration exceptions dismissed as late (FLRA O-AR-429)
The union filed exceptions to a Charleston Naval Shipyard arbitration award. The exceptions reached the Authority one day after the statutory deadline. The Authority held that it could not waive or extend that filing period and dismissed the exceptions without reviewing the award.
San Antonio Air Logistics Center and AFGE Local 1617
Kelly Air Force Base arbitration appeal dismissed as premature (FLRA O-AR-407)
An arbitrator deferred the merits of a pay-retention grievance while a related case was before the Authority. The Air Force challenged the arbitrator’s threshold ruling that the pending case did not bar arbitration. Because the arbitrator had reserved the merits, the Authority dismissed the…
Veterans Administration Hospital and AFGE Local 2281
Probationer grievance award partly set aside (FLRA O-AR-127)
A VA hospital dismissed a probationary employee for excessive leave. The arbitrator denied her grievance in part because he read the statute as barring probationers from using a negotiated grievance procedure to contest just cause. The Authority held that the statute did not impose that categorical…
Elias Moses v. Whitley Development Corporation
Discrimination finding affirmed, back pay remanded
Elias Moses alleged that Whitley Development fired him because it wrongly believed he had reported a bulldozer accident to MSHA. The Commission affirmed that coercive questioning and harassment about a possible safety report interfered with his Mine Act rights, even though Moses had not made the…
Hearst Corporation, Pejepscot Paper Corporation
Settlement remanded for union objections
Hearst and the Secretary submitted a settlement that the judge approved after finding that the employees' union had adequate notice. The Commission held that the union must be told when a proposal has actually been filed for approval so it knows that its ten-day objection period has begun. Earlier…
General Motors Corporation, Fisher Body Division
Noise case dismissed without prejudice
OSHA alleged an other-than-serious noise violation at General Motors, but its counsel sought a postponement and broad additional discovery only one day before the hearing. The judge denied those requests and dismissed the case when the Secretary said the case could not proceed. The Commission found…
Whirlpool Corporation
Union allowed to challenge entire settlement
A Whirlpool employees' union objected to a settlement that changed an alleged violation from serious to other than serious. The judge ruled that the union could challenge any part of the settlement, not only the abatement period, and could present evidence on whether the agreement was appropriate…
Wisconsin Steel, Division of Envirodyne Industries
Settlement objections remanded for reasoned findings
Wisconsin Steel and the Secretary entered a settlement that the employees' union opposed. The judge heard the union’s objections and overruled them. His order suggested that he considered the objections, but did not explain why he overruled them. The Commission held that an authorized employee…
Standard Motor Products Company
Power-press guarding citation vacated for insufficient proof
A mechanical power press had a six-inch opening in its hairpin guard for ejecting finished parts, and a box covered that opening during OSHA's inspection. OSHA theorized that an employee might remove the box and reach through the opening to clear a jam or adjust stock. The Commission held that the…
Bechtel Power Corporation
Unsafe scaffold access affirmed after fatal fall
A Bechtel pipe welder fell 24 feet and died after reaching from a scaffold ladder toward a platform whose access was obstructed by an overhead beam. The Commission held that the mobile-scaffold rule requires genuinely safe and proper access, not merely the presence of a ladder. Bechtel could have…
K-Mart
Baler crushing citation reinstated on stale training and unenforced rules, lockout allegation vacated
An employee was crushed in a cardboard baler at a K-Mart store. The exact circumstances and cause of the accident are unknown. The Secretary cited the company under the general duty clause, 29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(1), for failing to protect employees from the hazards of operating the machine. Judge…
Englehard Industries
Union objection remanded and companion settlement approved
The decision resolved two related Englehard proceedings. In docket 78-2880, the employees' union objected to a settlement provision reducing a violation from willful to serious. The Commission affirmed the judge's ruling that the union had a right to be heard and remanded that docket for further…
General Motors Corporation, Central Foundries Division
Welder deenergization violation affirmed
A General Motors employee was electrocuted while changing the polarity of a welder whose 440-volt input remained energized. The Commission defined the recognized hazard as electrical shock from energized parts during equipment servicing, rather than the precise sequence that caused the fatality. GM…
AFGE Local 2069 and Dobbins Air Force Base
Dobbins agreement petition dismissed as moot (FLRA O-NG-707)
AFGE Local 2069 appealed agency-head disapproval of provisions in a local agreement. The parties later agreed on some provisions and the Air Force withdrew its objection to the rest. The Authority found no remaining negotiability dispute and dismissed the petition as moot.
VA Regional Office Denver and AFGE Local 1557
Denver VA arbitration exceptions dismissed as late (FLRA O-AR-416)
The Denver VA office filed exceptions to an arbitration award two days after they were due. The Authority held that the filing period could not be waived or extended. It dismissed the exceptions without reviewing the award.
Navy Public Works Center and Machinists Local Lodge 192
Navy public-works arbitration exceptions dismissed as late (FLRA O-AR-252)
The union mailed exceptions to an arbitration award on the last day of the filing period, and they reached the Authority four days later. The Authority applied the deadline to receipt of the exceptions, not their postmark. It dismissed the filing as untimely without addressing the award’s merits.
Amax Lead Company of Missouri
Two citations settled for $64
MSHA and Amax Lead Company submitted a settlement of two citations under 30 C.F.R. § 57.5-5 at the Buick Mine. Each citation had carried a proposed $40 penalty, and the agreement reduced each to $32. Judge John J. Morris approved the settlement, affirmed both citations at the agreed amounts, and…
Matter of Mesias
Haitian acknowledgment established legitimation
The Board reviewed a United States citizen's petition seeking preference status for his unmarried Haitian son, who was born out of wedlock in 1956. The Board held that under Haiti's 1959 Presidential Decree, a child born before the decree and acknowledged by the natural father after the decree…
Rockville Mining Company, Inc.
Two blasting rule findings sustained, $300 assessed
MSHA cited Rockville Mining after a blasting crew used short safety fuses to fire small charges that expelled water from drilled holes at its No. 1 Strip Mine. Judge George A. Koutras found that 12-inch fuses violated the 36-inch minimum and that charged holes awaiting firing were not guarded or…
Consolidation Coal Company
Fire alarm and methane monitor charges dismissed
MSHA cited Consolidation Coal after a belt fire alarm failed to respond to a test and records showed that methane monitors had last been checked in the previous month. Judge William Fauver found that the alarm test was invalid because power had been off long enough for the system to enter a…
United Mine Workers of America on behalf of Jeffrey Lynn Simmons v. Southern Ohio Coal Company
Jeffrey Lynn Simmons v. Southern Ohio Coal Company (FMSHRC LAKE 82-74-D): Work refusal complaint dismissed
Jeffrey Simmons, a mechanic at Southern Ohio Coal's Meigs No. 1 Mine, was discharged after refusing an assignment as a continuous miner helper. Judge James A. Broderick credited Simmons' testimony that he communicated a sincere safety concern to the foreman. The judge also found that the foreman…
Sunshine Mining Company
Citations over private worker interviews vacated
MSHA cited Sunshine Mining when it refused to allow investigators in the Program of Accident Reduction to interview workers privately on company property and time. Judge John J. Morris held that section 103(a) authorized mine inspections and investigations but did not expressly authorize private…
Consolidation Coal Company v. Secretary of Labor
Rock dust withdrawal order affirmed
Consolidation Coal contested an MSHA withdrawal order for inadequate rock dust at its Humphrey No. 7 Mine. An inspector sampled the floor of an underground entry and found incombustible content of 54, 37, and 32 percent, each below the 65 percent required by 30 C.F.R. § 75.403. Judge Gary Melick…
NAGE Local R14-52 and Red River Army Depot
One Red River detail proposal negotiable; two staffing proposals rejected (FLRA O-NG-458)
NAGE Local R14-52 proposed reversion rights for involuntarily reassigned employees, priority for competitive applicants, and a 60-day limit on noncompetitive higher-grade details. The Authority held the first two proposals outside the duty to bargain because they constrained management’s choice of…
AFGE Local 1603 and Navy Exchange, Patuxent River
Navy Exchange reduction-in-force placement proposal rejected (FLRA O-NG-435)
AFGE Local 1603 proposed that employees affected by a reduction in force receive reversion rights to all previously held and intervening bargaining-unit positions. The Authority held that this seniority-based placement requirement interfered with management’s right to assign employees. It dismissed…
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.