Secretary of Labor v. Wal-Mart Stores

Case Updates

The respondent withdrew its notice and petition. The Commission subsequently vacated the Administrative Law Judge’s Decision and Order.

In its brief, NCLC urged the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission to rein in the Secretary of Labor's efforts to use an adjudication proceeding to radically expand the scope of the “general duty” clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) far beyond its intended parameters. In this case, the Secretary issued a citation against a retailer for failing to prevent an alleged hazard caused by the social behavior of third party consumers that were beyond the employer's control. NCLC's amicus brief explained that the Secretary and the Administrative Law Judge proposed an impermissibly open-ended definition of the alleged “hazard”, and that the Secretary failed to show that the defendant-retailer had actual knowledge of the alleged hazard, among other arguments. NCLC argued that the Secretary inappropriately abused the adjudication process in this case to attempt to effect a sweeping policy change.