A review board erred when it upheld a decision by OSHA to discharge an employee for insubordination who had made public comments critical of the Agency, a federal appeals court ruled May 31.

Robert Whitmore was fired in July 2009, four years after he went public with complaints of alleged underreporting of occupational illnesses and injuries by employers and of OSHA’s alleged failure to do anything about them.  OSHA relies on company-provided injury and illness data to target supposedly unsafe workplaces for inspections.