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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Planet Fitness
Late contest dismissed after citation was misplaced
OSHA cited a corporate Planet Fitness gym in Edwardsville, Pennsylvania, for blocked exit routes and several electrical hazards, proposing $30,134 for four serious citation items with subparts. The certified citation was delivered to the gym and signed for on February 28, 2023, making March 21 the…
Trinity Solar LLC, as successor to Trinity Solar Inc.
Repeat residential fall-protection citation vacated
A Trinity Solar worker died after falling during residential solar-panel installation in South Orange, New Jersey. No one saw where the worker was or what he was doing immediately before the fall, and he was wearing a harness. OSHA cited Trinity for allegedly failing to provide fall protection…
Commercial Metals Company, d/b/a CMC Steel New Jersey
Mill lockout violations affirmed but willful classification rejected
Commercial Metals Company manufactured steel rebar at its Sayreville, New Jersey, facility. An assistant roller was adjusting a jack behind Mill Stand 7 when the machine unexpectedly energized, pulled him into its spindles, and killed him. The judge found that CMC's established lockout procedure…
U.S. Postal Service
Repeat blocked-exit violation affirmed
After a roof collapse closed another New Jersey processing center, the Postal Service rerouted a large volume of packages to its Teterboro plant. OSHA found pallets, boxes, mail, and processing materials obstructing an exit route and found access to fire extinguishers obstructed during two…
Kenvil United Corp., dba Kenvil Steel, Inc.
Steel-erection fall citation vacated
Kenvil Steel erected structural steel for a municipal-building project in Belle Mead, New Jersey. An OSHA compliance officer observed four employees working 15 to 30 feet above the ground and issued a repeat-serious fall-protection citation with a proposed $30,037 penalty. The judge found that one…
United States Postal Service, Lehigh Valley PDCF
Obstruction citations affirmed, willful classification reduced
During the 2020 pandemic and holiday mail surge, staffing shortages and increased volume caused mail containers and equipment to accumulate at the Postal Service's Lehigh Valley processing plant. OSHA found blocked traffic aisles, emergency exit routes, a fire-alarm pull station, and insufficient…
Chewy, Inc.
Forklift under-ride hazard citation affirmed
A Chewy warehouse employee was crushed and killed when his stand-up forklift passed beneath a low horizontal storage-rack beam and the beam entered the unguarded operator compartment. Five months earlier, another employee had suffered broken ribs in a similar under-ride incident at the same…
MPS Products Corp.
Beam fall-protection item affirmed and lift-rail item vacated
OSHA inspected MPS Products during steel erection work in Massachusetts and cited two fall hazards. Two employees worked on steel beams 29 feet above the ground without tying off, while another employee briefly climbed a scissor lift's guardrails to reach the structure. The judge affirmed the…
GTA Co., Inc.
Late contest of willful citation dismissed
OSHA issued GTA excavation citations, including a willful item carrying a proposed $56,908 penalty. The company received the citations on January 15, 2019, making February 6 the deadline to file a written contest, but it did not contact OSHA until mid-March. The judge found no excusable neglect…
Birdsboro Kosher Farms Corp.
Lockout, noise, exit, and PPE citations largely affirmed
Birdsboro Kosher Farms operated a large poultry-processing facility with a history of OSHA citations and settlements addressing lockout/tagout and occupational noise. The judge found that Birdsboro still lacked required machine-specific energy-control procedures, adequate authorized-employee…
Berkebile Auto Service, Inc.
Tow-truck crushing-hazard citation affirmed
Berkebile Auto Service operated an automotive garage and towing service in Pennsylvania. A tow-truck driver died after an off-loaded vehicle rolled forward and pinned him against the tow truck. The judge found that the driver was Berkebile's employee and that the company and towing industry…
Lake Building Products, Inc.
Repeat steel-erection fall violation affirmed
Two employees landed decking bundles about 28 feet above the ground without using fall protection. The judge held that landing and unhooking decking did not make them “connectors,” because connectors must be placing and connecting structural members or components. The connector exception and…
3-D Builders, LLP
Ladder and willful fall violations affirmed
3-D Builders performed residential roofing work at heights of approximately 10 to 22 feet without guardrails, safety nets, personal fall arrest systems, or other fall protection. Workers also used an extension ladder whose side rails extended only about two feet, six inches above the roof landing…
Francis J. Palo, Inc.
Bridge load-bearing item affirmed
Francis J. Palo served as general contractor for the phased demolition and reconstruction of a concrete arch bridge. The company placed a tracked excavator weighing more than 90,000 pounds on the section being demolished while cuts through the supporting abutments were underway. That side of the…
Dentsply US Prosthetics, LLC
Automatic press guarding violation affirmed
Dentsply US Prosthetics manufactured dental products using an automatic press with a Lexan shield that left an opening near the machine's moving parts. A trainee who had worked at Dentsply for about two weeks was operating the press without direct supervision when the machine crushed his hand…
Wayne J. Griffin Electric, Inc.
Electrical contact violations affirmed
Wayne J. Griffin Electric installed replacement substations during a large electrical upgrade at a New Hampshire office complex. An electrician was seriously injured when his face contacted an energized bus bar while he worked inside a switchgear compartment believed to be de-energized. The judge…
All Erection and Crane Rental Corp.
Crane wire-rope citations and $21,000 vacated
A crawler crane's boom-hoist wire rope broke, causing the boom to collapse and killing two workers. All Erection owned the crane but had leased it without an operating crew to Beaver Excavating, which employed the operators and controlled routine inspection, maintenance, and lubrication. The judge…
JMD Roofing & Siding, LLC
Late contest dismissed after employer stopped participating
OSHA issued JMD Roofing & Siding several serious and other-than-serious construction citations with proposed penalties totaling $8,400. The company received the citation and was told in Spanish how and when to contest it, but filed its notice about six weeks after the deadline. It later stopped…
Alro Steel Corporation
Band-saw lockout citation vacated
OSHA cited Alro Steel after inspecting two band saws at its Toledo, Ohio facility. Employees changing blades turned off the saw, locked a cover over the start button, and kept the key, but did not isolate the machines at the main electrical disconnect. The Secretary argued that relying on control…
Amanda Bent Bolt Co.
Failure to abate press-wiring violation affirmed
Amanda Bent Bolt manufactured automotive parts with mechanical power presses at its Logan, Ohio facility. A prior settlement required permanent presses that were not frequently moved to be hardwired within 180 days, but a follow-up inspection found that presses still used flexible cords after the…
Mondo Construction Company, LLC
Trench items affirmed but repeat classification rejected
Mondo employees worked in a utility trench with deep side channels while installing plywood shoring that lacked the braces required by the company's engineering plan. The judge measured the excavation from the channels because they extended to the walls and increased the wall load, making the…
Academy Roofing Corp.
Fire-extinguisher citation vacated for lack of quantity proof
Academy Roofing employees used flammable cleaner and adhesive while working on a construction-site roof. After a small fire exhausted the available extinguishers, OSHA cited the company under a rule requiring an extinguisher within 50 feet when more than five gallons of flammable or combustible…
Dukane Precast, Inc.
Confined-space and delayed-rescue violations affirmed
Dukane Precast manufactured concrete products using large aggregate bins that it had identified as permit-required confined spaces. An employee entered a sand bin, became engulfed up to his neck, and remained trapped while untrained co-workers entered the bin to attempt a rescue. The judge affirmed…
Peck Brothers, LLC
Roof fall-protection citation vacated
Peck Brothers was replacing a deteriorated gutter and reflashing a low-slope roof at a Home Depot store. OSHA alleged that employees near the roof edge lacked fall protection and cited the general rule for unprotected sides and edges, with the low-slope roofing rule pleaded in the alternative. The…
CentiMark Corporation
Roof structural-integrity citation affirmed after fatal fall
CentiMark employees replaced a damaged concrete roof panel at a steel facility with a roof more than 60 feet above the factory floor. After the panel was removed, adjacent panels showed missing and crumbling concrete and exposed reinforcing steel, but CentiMark did not conduct a closer inspection…
Absolute Roofing & Construction, Inc.
Four scaffold and fall-protection items affirmed
Absolute Roofing's worker repaired a steep church roof without fall protection above a scaffold that lacked base plates and guardrails. The judge treated Absolute Roofing and Absolute Exteriors as a single employer because they shared ownership, management, an office, employees, work, and their…
Penney's Construction Company, LLC
Willful trench violations affirmed after work continued
Penney's Construction replaced a sewer line in a 10-foot-deep trench with vertical, fissured walls and no cave-in protection. Employees also encountered flowing sewage, possible atmospheric hazards, an edge-side spoil pile, unprotected use of a cut saw, and public traffic without high-visibility…
Hayward Baker, Inc.
Drill pinch-point and training items affirmed
Hayward Baker employees loaded steel casing onto a drill shaft while installing soil nails for a retaining wall. When a casing was difficult to align, the shaft moved as an employee handled it, catching and crushing his hand at an unguarded pinch point. The judge found that moving the shaft while…
JP Gallagher Electric
Late electrical-citation contest dismissed
OSHA issued JP Gallagher Electric a serious citation with a proposed $2,400 penalty for electrical work on a circuit that was allegedly not locked out or otherwise made inoperative. The company received the citation on October 7, 2011, but did not file its notice of contest by the October 31…
Domino Window Cleaning, Inc.
Fourth-floor fall hazard citation affirmed
A Domino employee cleaning a fourth-floor New York window without fall protection fell 40 feet to the sidewalk and died from his injuries. The evidence showed that he had been working from the exterior ledge and that Domino also instructed employees to clean from an interior sill beside a large…
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.