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. Bluestone Oil Corporation
Secretary of Labor v. Bluestone Oil Corporation (FMSHRC WEVA 2022-0176): Unsupported S&S removals rejected
Bluestone Oil’s proposed settlement covered twenty-four citations and would have reduced total penalties from $51,023 to $30,500. It also would have removed the significant-and-substantial designations from two citations without providing a factual justification. The Administrative Law Judge denied…
Secretary of Labor v. Morton Salt, Inc.
Secretary of Labor v. Morton Salt, Inc. (FMSHRC CENT 2023-0248): Repeated process failures and long delay barred reopening
Morton Salt sought to reopen five orders after a new environmental, health, and safety manager failed to contest the associated penalties. The company had timely contested four underlying orders, but it did not identify concrete corrective steps for the penalty-processing failure. The Commission…
Secretary of Labor v. Morton Salt, Inc.
Secretary of Labor v. Morton Salt, Inc. (FMSHRC CENT 2023-0218): Unsent contest and repeated process failures barred reopening
Morton Salt's environmental, health, and safety manager marked four citations for contest but did not mail or email the completed assessment form. MSHA had already told the company that the citations were no longer eligible for a conference and that it needed to return the assessment form to…
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review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.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.