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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Harry Fiocchi & Associates, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed, citation affirmed
Harry Fiocchi & Associates is a New Jersey general construction, design-build, and project-management firm with about 10 employees. OSHA mailed the company a citation by certified mail on March 31, 1995, and it was received on April 4, 1995. Under the OSH Act an employer has 15 working days to file…
Taylor Roofing & Sheet Metal, Inc.
Late notice of contest not excused, citations affirmed by default
Taylor Roofing & Sheet Metal, Inc., a New Jersey roofing contractor, received OSHA citations and proposed penalties by certified mail on June 19, 1995. Under the OSH Act, an employer has 15 working days to file a notice of contest, which meant Taylor's deadline was July 11, 1995. The company's…
Dandee Creations, Ltd.
Late notice of contest dismissed, citation affirmed
Dandee Creations is a New York company that received an OSHA citation issued December 15, 1994 and delivered by certified mail on January 5, 1995. Under the OSH Act an employer has 15 working days to file a notice of contest, so Dandee's deadline was January 27, 1995. On January 30, 1995 the…
Columbia Presbyterian Hospital
Surgical-mask TB citation vacated because the hospital lacked fair notice that only NIOSH respirators would do
OSHA inspected Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City in June 1992, during a period when a tuberculosis (TB) outbreak had struck hospitals in the New York and New Jersey area. The hospital workers' union, Local 1199, took part as the authorized employee representative. The parties settled…
Lee Zoldan, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed, citation affirmed because not reading OSHA's paperwork is simple negligence, not excusable neglect
Lee Zoldan, Inc. is a residential and commercial plumbing and heating business in Middletown, New York, in operation since 1966. After OSHA issued a citation and proposed penalties (dated January 12, 1995), the company did not file a written notice of contest within the 15 working days the law…
Trend-Line Furniture Corporation
Late notice of contest dismissed, failure-to-abate citations affirmed because sloppy mail handling is simple negligence, not excusable neglect
Trend-Line Furniture Corporation makes dining room furniture in Bay Shore, New York, with about eight workers in the plant and two clerical employees in the office. OSHA inspected the plant on August 9, 1994 and issued citations. A follow-up inspection on November 8, 1994 found that the earlier…
R & J Construction Corporation
Late notice of contest dismissed, citation affirmed because internal office mishandling of the mail is not excusable neglect
OSHA's Manhattan area office issued a citation to R & J Construction Corporation by certified mail on January 14, 1994, and the company received it on January 19. The law gave R & J 15 working days, to February 9, 1994, to file a written notice of contest. R & J did nothing until it received a…
R.H. Belam Company
Late notice of contest dismissed, citations affirmed because misreading the contest deadline is not excusable neglect
OSHA issued citations and proposed penalties to R.H. Belam Company by certified mail on June 14, 1994, and the company received them on June 15, 1994. The law gave Belam 15 working days, to July 7, 1994, to file a written notice of contest. Belam did not contest in time. Its general manager and…
Holt Cargo Systems, Inc.
Forklift-horn and carbon-monoxide-testing citations affirmed, but rider and hard-hat items thrown out
Holt Cargo Systems is a stevedoring company that was unloading pallets of plywood from the vessel Pan Queen at a marine terminal in Camden, New Jersey. After an OSHA inspection, the Secretary of Labor issued three serious citation items and two repeated items, proposing $9,000 for the serious items…
Jocanso, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed, citations affirmed because a staffed office mishandling the mail is simple negligence, not excusable neglect
OSHA issued Jocanso, Inc. two citations and a proposed penalty on October 13, 1994, and the company received them on October 28, 1994. The law gave Jocanso 15 working days, to November 22, 1994, to file a written notice of contest. Instead the company did nothing until its attorney sent OSHA a…
Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting Co.
Scaffold access deemed de minimis, missing rails and toeboards cost $700
Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting Co. erected a tubular welded-frame scaffold about 15 feet high for two employees welding at a White Plains, New York worksite. The employees climbed down scaffold rungs spaced 18 to 24 inches apart instead of using a nearby ladder. Chief Judge Irving Sommer found…
First American Construction Corporation
Dissolved company remains bound by uncontested citations and penalties
OSHA issued one serious citation and one other citation after inspecting First American Construction Corporation's Brooklyn worksite. The Secretary moved to dismiss the company's notice of contest because it was filed late. At the hearing, the company's president testified that the corporation was…
Prince Carpentry, Inc.
Misfiled citation did not excuse late notice of contest
Prince Carpentry, Inc. received a serious OSHA citation and proposed penalty on November 21, 1994, making its notice of contest due by December 14. The company did not contest until January 31, 1995, after a delinquency letter prompted a search that located the citation in the wrong office folder…
Moishe's Moving Systems, Inc.
Manager's vacation did not excuse late notice of contest
Moishe's Moving Systems, Inc. received a serious OSHA citation on December 8, 1992, making its notice of contest due December 30. The company filed its contest in January after the building manager returned from vacation and found the citation in his mail. Chief Judge Irving Sommer noted that 30 to…
Gold Coin Ironworks
Late contest dismissed after employer also missed the hearing
Gold Coin Ironworks received a serious citation and proposed penalty on October 7, 1994, making its notice of contest due October 31. It requested an informal conference but did not file a contest until November 23. The employer also failed to appear at the scheduled hearing, arriving after the…
Utility Systems, Inc.
Willful utility-location violation affirmed after gas explosion
Utility Systems excavated for water service lines on a New Jersey street after snow and earlier trenching had obscured gas-line markings. Its superintendent requested a new markout but began digging before the gas company responded, despite uncertainty about service to one house. The backhoe struck…
Residential Contracting, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA issued Residential Contracting, Inc. a serious citation and proposed penalty. After certified mail sent to the company president's residence was returned unclaimed, a compliance officer delivered the documents to the company's designated mail-receiving location with the president's approval…
Voodoo Constr. Corp.
Broken-fax excuse did not save late contest
OSHA issued Voodoo Construction Corporation serious and repeat citations that the company received on November 29, 1993. The company said it faxed the documents to its attorney, but his fax machine malfunctioned and neither the company nor counsel followed up in time to file a contest. The judge…
Woronoffs Furniture
Untimely contest dismissed, citations affirmed
Woronoffs Furniture received two OSHA citations and proposed penalties on April 4, 1994, making its notice of contest due by April 25. The company claimed it had mailed an April 11 letter requesting both an informal conference and a contest of the penalties, but OSHA had no record of receiving it…
Pulaski Construction, Inc.
Late contest dismissed, citation affirmed
Pulaski Construction received an OSHA citation on May 14, 1993, making its written notice of contest due by June 4. Its contest letter was dated June 3 but postmarked June 11 and received by OSHA on June 15. The company president and a later letter from his clerk asserted that the notice had been…
Dynamic Painting Corp.
Three fall and water-safety items vacated, ring-buoy item affirmed
Dynamic Painting employees worked on a bridge and suspended scaffold above water at a Bay Shore, New York, site. The judge vacated the fall-protection item because the compliance officer gave inconsistent testimony about when the photographs were taken, where the employee was located, and whether…
G. Pugni & Son, Inc.
Demolition head-protection and engineering-survey items affirmed, $3,500
G. Pugni & Son was a demolition and rehabilitation subcontractor at the Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington, New York. On August 18, 1993, a suspended concrete and plaster ceiling collapsed onto two workers who were tearing it down, and OSHA inspected after a news-media referral. The agency issued…
Zantec Development Co., Inc.
Signed settlement enforced, notice of contest dismissed
Zantec Development received four OSHA citations in February 1993 with penalties totaling $4,500. At an informal conference, OSHA offered to cut the penalties to $2,200 if Zantec signed a settlement waiving its right to contest, and Zantec's owner signed it that day. Zantec then tried to file a…
Luis A. Ayala Colon Sucrs., Inc.
Repeat safety-shoe violation at a Puerto Rico pier affirmed, $320
Luis A. Ayala Colon Sucrs., Inc. was a stevedoring company unloading a vessel at the Ponce Municipal Pier in Puerto Rico. During a May 1993 inspection, an OSHA compliance officer saw two stevedores working on the pier apron, close to trucks and cargo slings, without safety shoes. The company…
United Sheet Metal, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed, citation affirmed as issued
United Sheet Metal received an OSHA citation in January 1994. Under the OSH Act, an employer has 15 working days after receiving a citation to file a notice of contest, which gave the company until mid-February. It filed late, and the Secretary moved to dismiss the contest as untimely. The company…
Tropical Brands Packing Corp.
Late notice of contest dismissed, citations stand
Tropical Brands Packing Corp., a New Jersey company, received two OSHA citations with a proposed penalty on June 1, 1993. An employer has 15 working days after receiving a citation to file a written notice of contest. The company received the citations on June 4, 1993 but did not respond until an…
Gallo Wine Distributors, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA issued Gallo Wine Distributors a repeat citation and proposed penalty on June 29, 1993. An employee signed for the citation the next day, making July 22 the deadline for a notice of contest, but Gallo did not send its contest until September. Gallo said it had not received the citation…
Volmar Construction, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA issued Volmar Construction a repeat citation and proposed penalties on February 3, 1993. Volmar received the citation on February 8, making March 2 the contest deadline, and its representative attended an informal conference before that deadline. OSHA told the representative that any contest…
E.R. Del Moral, Inc.
Scaffold and fall-hazard violations affirmed
E.R. Del Moral was performing construction work in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The judge found that employees worked on elevated scaffolds and platforms with missing end guardrails and inadequate intermediate rails, and that safety belts did not substitute for the guardrails required by the cited…
St. Thomas Gas Company
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA issued St. Thomas Gas Company two citations on November 26, 1993, which the company received on December 1. The 15-working-day contest period expired on December 22, but the company's contest letter was dated December 29 and OSHA received it on January 3, 1994. St. Thomas Gas did not respond…
Homestead Gourmet Food Co., Inc.
Settlement approved after hearing
OSHA inspected Homestead Gourmet Food Company's facility in Linden, New Jersey, and issued two citations. The citations alleged six serious violations and five other-than-serious violations under standards addressing exits, personal protective equipment, emergency washing, electrical training…
Caribco International Corporation
Scaffold and safety-program violations affirmed
Caribco International was working at a fitness-facility construction site at Fort Buchanan in San Juan, Puerto Rico. OSHA cited missing scaffold guardrails, an unguarded open-sided floor, inadequate scaffold bracing, and failures to maintain an accident-prevention program and train employees to…
Sterling/ICC, and its Successors
Late contests dismissed after remand hearing
An earlier order dismissed Sterling/ICC's notices of contest as untimely. The Commission sent the matters back for a hearing because the company's vice president suggested that OSHA had led him to believe a lawyer was required to contest the citations. At the hearing, the OSHA district supervisor…
Bermudez & Longo, S.E.
Mixed ruling on grinder and electrical violations
OSHA inspected Bermudez & Longo's construction site in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. The judge affirmed two serious grinder violations because an accessible bench grinder used by employees lacked a work rest and a safety guard, assessing $375 for each item. He vacated a third grinder item because the…
A.J. McNulty Co., Inc.
Hard-hat violation affirmed with a $750 penalty
A.J. McNulty was handling a six-foot concrete pillar with an overhead crane at a Staten Island worksite. Two employees receiving the pillar and their foreman were not wearing hard hats. The company acknowledged that the workers should have worn head protection and said it disciplined them under its…
Kenneth J. Herman, Inc.
Construction safety violations affirmed
Kenneth J. Herman, Inc. was constructing fire escapes at a New York worksite. OSHA cited employees working without required head protection, using a scaffold frame instead of safe access, and working on scaffolds without required guardrails or effective tie-off protection. OSHA also cited the…
RCS Rizzoli Corp. of N.Y.
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA personally served a serious citation and penalty notice on the manager of an RCS Rizzoli bookstore. The company did not file its notice of contest within the required 15 working days because its operations manager failed to forward the citation to counsel before leaving on a business trip. The…
Security Elevator, Inc.
Fuel-cylinder wrench citation vacated
Security Elevator was cited after an OSHA inspection at a construction project for Sterling Drug Company in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. One alleged violation concerning fuel-gas equipment was settled before the hearing. The remaining item alleged that a required wrench was not left on a fuel-gas…
Sparrow Construction Corp.
General contractor liable for unshored fire-damaged floors
Sparrow Construction was the general contractor for the rehabilitation of fire-damaged residential buildings in New York City. Two subcontractor employees removed debris beneath floors and structural areas that had partially collapsed, with hanging debris above them and no shoring or bracing. The…
Fluidics/Poole & Kent Joint Venture
Grinder guard and fire-extinguisher items affirmed
Fluidics/Poole & Kent Joint Venture performed mechanical work at a site in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. An employee removed the guard from a hand grinder to work in a confined area, and the ALJ credited the compliance officer's testimony that the employee used it without reinstalling the guard…
Renewal Arts Contracting Corp.
Electrical grounding violations affirmed
Renewal Arts Contracting was performing construction work in the Bronx, New York. An employee used a drill and extension cord with missing grounding pins, and the company's project manager knew about the defective equipment. The ALJ affirmed a serious violation because the missing continuous ground…
Crescent Street Construction Corp.
Fourteen serious items settled for $3,200
Crescent Street Construction received a serious citation containing 15 items with $15,300 in proposed penalties and a separate three-item other-than-serious citation with no penalty. The Secretary withdrew the first serious item. Immediately before the hearing, the parties settled the remaining 14…
Pullini Water Main & Sewer Contract
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA sent Pullini Water Main & Sewer Contractors serious and repeated citations by certified mail. The company received them on March 23, 1992, making April 13 the deadline to contest. Its attorney did not send a notice of contest until May 12. The judge found that the delay resulted from the…
LT Precision Heat Treating d/b/a Precision
Bench-grinder violations affirmed with reduced penalties
LT Precision Heat Treating used a bench grinder for spark testing metal at its Brooklyn facility. The grinder's tongue guard was too far from the wheel, and the work rest had been pivoted away so that it provided no support. The company argued that spark testing was not grinding, but the judge…
Joseph B. Fay Co.
Bridge-edge fall citation vacated
Joseph P. Fay Company was removing a bridge deck in Columbia, New Jersey. OSHA alleged that two employees walked within a few feet of an unguarded bridge edge more than 25 feet above the ground. The judge found that the compliance officer could not reliably identify the workers as Fay employees and…
Pardy Construction Corporation
Late notice of contest dismissed, citations affirmed as final
Pardy Construction Corporation is a construction company based in Corona, New York. OSHA issued it a serious citation and an other-than-serious citation on March 11, 1992. The company filed its notice of contest by a letter dated May 13, 1992, long after the deadline. The Secretary moved to dismiss…
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.