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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Thompson Electric, Inc.
Eye-protection and recordkeeping items affirmed
A Thompson Electric crew worked inside a vault near energized 4,160-volt cable terminations, and no crew member wore eye protection. The crew supervisor received a fatal electric shock when his elbow contacted a tiny exposed spot in insulating tape on an adjacent energized lug. The judge affirmed a…
C. I. Thornburg Co., Inc.
Settlement approved with $25,250 penalty
OSHA cited C. I. Thornburg after inspecting pipe work at a West Virginia water-treatment plant. The parties settled before litigating the citation merits. Three citation groupings remained serious with penalties of $1,750 each, while the alleged willful item was amended to unclassified with a…
European Craft Construction, Inc.
Default affirmed three safety items and $4,000 penalty
European Craft Construction stopped participating after an initial prehearing conference. The company did not join later conference calls, return messages, help prepare the joint prehearing statement, or respond to an order to show cause. The judge found that the company had received the…
Kevin Dallas Roofing
Default judgment after the employer stopped participating, all citations affirmed
Kevin Dallas Roofing, a sole proprietor in Ohio, was inspected by OSHA and issued a serious citation and an other-than-serious citation totaling $1,650 in proposed penalties. The employer contested the inspection by letter, but then did not participate in the scheduled pre-hearing conference call…
Modern Continental Construction Company, Inc.
Rigging-training and suspended-load violations affirmed
At Boston's Big Dig, employees removed shoring through a small ceiling access hole. A vertically rigged bundle of seven-foot cross braces slipped and fell through the opening, impaling an employee in the head. The judge found that Modern had not adequately trained the crew for vertical lifts…
AIA Environmental
Unsecured-cylinder item affirmed, two items vacated
AIA Environmental performed interior demolition at an office building in Connecticut. OSHA found unsecured oxygen and acetylene cylinders, cited their close placement, and alleged that AIA did not make its written hazard-communication program available upon request. The judge affirmed the…
D.W.K. Contractors, Inc.
Trench-depth item vacated but spoil-pile violation affirmed
D.W.K. dug a trench to install a rainwater drain and placed excavated soil directly at both edges. OSHA measured one wall at eight and one-half feet by measuring from the top of the spoil pile, but Judge Covette Rooney held that trench depth must be measured from original ground level and OSHA had…
Thomas Mlodzinski, d/b/a TNT Roofing
Unprotected hotel roof work affirmed
OSHA observed three TNT Roofing workers, including the owner, installing shingles on low- and steep-slope portions of a hotel roof 40 to 50 feet above the ground without fall protection. The crew had fall-arrest equipment and had used it earlier, but stopped because they felt secure without it…
Drum Construction Co., Inc.
Employees outside trench box exposed to cave-in hazard
OSHA observed two Drum Construction employees working outside a trench box near a manhole in Type B soil. One area was about ten feet deep, another had been about eight feet deep during backfilling, and the trench walls were essentially vertical; the access ladder was also outside the protected…
Armco, Inc.
Settlement approved over union lockout-procedure objection
The Secretary and Armco submitted a settlement agreement, but the authorized employee representative objected that plant foremen were being allowed to omit or alter existing lockout procedures. Judge Covette Rooney reviewed the objection after a Commission direction for review and remand. She…
Modern Continental/Obayashi, a Joint Venture
Unguarded slurry-wall excavations supported repeat violation
Modern Continental/Obayashi constructed deep slurry-wall excavations for Boston's Central Artery project. Employees worked close to excavation edges without guardrails or equivalent protection, even though the openings extended as deep as 100 feet. Judge Covette Rooney held that the excavation…
Keystone Construction Corp.
Failure to assess deteriorated tank roof affirmed
Keystone Construction repaired and repainted concrete water tanks using a containment system supported on the tank roof. While employees removed deteriorated concrete and erected scaffolding, the Smithtown tank roof collapsed and three employees fell about 35 feet. Judge Covette Rooney found that…
Bilran Excavating Company
Inadequately sloped trench violation affirmed
Bilran Excavating installed a water line in a trench about 8.5 feet deep with no shoring and walls sloped at 58 degrees. Its competent persons had not performed the required visual and manual soil analysis before the foreman entered the trench. Judge Covette Rooney held that without a valid soil…
Megan Construction Company
Subcontractor scaffold violation affirmed
A masonry subcontractor employee worked on a third-level scaffold without guardrails at a project controlled by Megan Construction. Judge Covette Rooney vacated an allegation that Megan lacked a program of frequent and regular inspections because its daily and weekly inspection evidence showed…
S. E. Johnson Companies
Bridge-demolition protective-equipment and monitoring citations vacated
S. E. Johnson Companies cut painted steel beams during an Ohio Turnpike bridge-demolition project. OSHA alleged that disposable suits were unsafe for torch cutting, that helpers had not received representative lead monitoring, and that the company had not made the required cadmium determination…
Brandenburg Industrial Services Company
Four demolition safety violations affirmed
Brandenburg Industrial Services Company performed demolition work at the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. OSHA cited an inadequately protected eight-foot excavation, an uncovered floor opening, a worn shackle, and excessively worn chain links on magnet excavators. The judge found…
L & B Products, Corp.
Fifty manufacturing safety items affirmed
L & B Products, Corp. manufactured furniture at a facility in Hudson, New York. OSHA issued 51 serious and other-than-serious items after inspecting eight departments. The allegations covered elevated work areas, exit signs, flammable liquids, fire and lockout training, machine and power-press…
Glenco Construction Services, Inc.
Steel erector held to general fall-protection rules, three items affirmed
Glenco Construction Services, Inc. was a steel-erection subcontractor at a Bloomsburg University library project in Pennsylvania. During a November 1996 inspection, OSHA found that cables at the tops of access ladders forced workers to step over them, that a stairwell opening had slack guard cables…
Sea-Jet Trucking Corp.
Five failure-to-abate items affirmed at a New Jersey warehouse, $101,200 in penalties
Sea-Jet Trucking Corp. ran an import-export warehouse in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where most workers were Spanish-speaking. After a 1994 inspection, OSHA cited the company for numerous violations, which it agreed to abate by April 1995 in a signed settlement. When OSHA did not receive an abatement…
Franklin E. Skepton Contractor, amended to Skepton Contracting Inc.
Hard-hat and LP-gas items affirmed
Skepton was a prime contractor on a middle-school construction project. The judge affirmed a repeat hard-hat violation after the superintendent walked near a moving backhoe without head protection, finding he had access to a possible impact hazard. She vacated an eye-protection item because Skepton…
Bear Erectors, Inc.
Steel-erection fall-protection and training citations all affirmed, $12,000 penalty
Bear Erectors was a steel-erection subcontractor working on an addition to and demolition at an adult nursing facility in Rochester, New York. An OSHA officer driving past saw workers on the high steel without fall protection, videotaped the site, and inspected. OSHA issued a serious citation with…
P. S. Bruckel, Inc.
Bridge-safety citations affirmed with $8,750 in penalties
P. S. Bruckel was an industrial-painting subcontractor on a lift-bridge rehabilitation project. A supervisor and a laborer worked over a canal and around an open counterweight pit while removing scaffold equipment, and the supervisor fell into the pit and died. OSHA cited the company for missing or…
Kirila Contractors, Inc.
Fifth excavation offense affirmed as willful
Kirila excavated beside a highway to push a gas line and allowed its president and another employee to work in an area at least five feet deep without sloping or another protective system. The judge rejected the claim that only a small sump hole exceeded five feet and found that the cited wall was…
Northwest Erectors, Inc.
Metal decking citation vacated
Northwest Erectors installed metal roof decking at a construction site in Pennsylvania. The company settled a fall-protection citation under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.105(a) for a $1,500 penalty. The remaining citation alleged that employees walked on decking that was not secured against movement under 29…
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.