Federal agency decisions, searchable in plain English.
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) and mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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Secretary of Labor v. Prairie State Generating Company, LLC
Secretary of Labor v. Prairie State Generating Company, LLC (FMSHRC LAKE 2013-187, et al.): Managers personally liable for missed preshift exam
Prairie State sent miners to rock-dust an area that had not received the required preshift or supplemental examination and contained loose roof and rib hazards. Judge Alan G. Paez affirmed the violation as S&S, highly negligent, and an unwarrantable failure, finding systemic management failures in…
Secretary of Labor v. Steve B. Rees, employed by Prairie State Generating Company, LLC and Secretary of Labor v. Michael Welch, employed by Prairie State Generating Company, LLC
Secretary of Labor v. Steve B. Rees and Secretary of Labor v. Michael Welch (FMSHRC LAKE 2015-144, LAKE 2015-130): Delay did not require dismissal of individual penalties
MSHA sought individual penalties against Prairie State employees Steve Rees and Michael Welch for allegedly knowingly authorizing, ordering, or carrying out a mine-safety violation. They moved to dismiss because MSHA waited about 28 months after the underlying inspection to issue the assessments…
What these documents are
- Commission decisions: Rulings by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission itself, the highest level of agency review. These are citable as Commission precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by OSHRC Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.
- 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 OSHRC public release, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.