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.
No decisions match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
Secretary of Labor v. Hopkins County Coal, LLC
Secretary of Labor v. Hopkins County Coal, LLC (FMSHRC KENT 2009-1441, et al.): MSHA may demand personnel files during discrimination investigations
A fired Hopkins County Coal belt examiner filed an MSHA discrimination complaint that expressed a belief of unfair treatment but did not identify a specific protected activity. During its investigation, MSHA requested his personnel file and five years of files for similarly situated employees, but…
Secretary of Labor v. Warrior Coal, LLC
Secretary of Labor v. Warrior Coal, LLC (FMSHRC KENT 2011-1259 R, et al.): MSHA may require employee contact information during safety investigations
After an inspector found hazardous roof and rib conditions at Warrior Coal's Cardinal Mine, MSHA opened a special investigation and requested the names, shifts, and contact information of all mine employees. Warrior refused to provide contact information without each employee's permission, leading…
Sherwin Alumina Company, LLC v. Secretary of Labor; Secretary of Labor v. Sherwin Alumina Company, LLC; United Steelworkers, Local 235A, Intervenor
Sherwin Alumina Company, LLC v. Secretary of Labor (FMSHRC CENT 2015-0151-RM, et al.): Locked-out miners retained walkaround representation
Sherwin Alumina locked out about 450 union-represented miners and temporarily replaced them, then barred their designated miners' representative from accompanying MSHA inspections. Judge Thomas P. McCarthy distinguished Commission precedent involving economic strikers because locked-out employees…
Sherwin Alumina Company, LLC v. Secretary of Labor; Secretary of Labor v. Sherwin Alumina Company, LLC; United Steelworkers, Local 235A, Intervenor
Sherwin Alumina Company, LLC v. Secretary of Labor (FMSHRC CENT 2015-151-RM, et al.): Original lockout walkaround decision superseded
Sherwin Alumina locked out about 450 union-represented miners and barred their designated miners' representative from accompanying MSHA inspections. Judge Thomas P. McCarthy held that locked-out miners who cannot be permanently replaced remain miners for section 103(f) walkaround purposes because…
Secretary of Labor v. Wolf Run Mining Company
Secretary of Labor v. Wolf Run Mining Company (FMSHRC WEVA 2008-1265): Past violations may support a repeated-failure flagrant penalty
Wolf Run challenged a $142,900 flagrant penalty for combustible-material accumulations. The ALJ held that a repeated-failure flagrant violation could be based only on repeated failures to eliminate the particular cited condition, not on prior similar violations. The Commission reversed. It held…
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.