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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Dunlop Tire Corporation
Settlement reclassifies citation and sets $7,000 penalty
OSHA issued Dunlop Tire Corporation one citation in October 1992, and Dunlop filed a timely contest. The United Rubber Workers, Local No. 915, was granted party status. When the case came to hearing, the parties announced that they had resolved every issue and stated their agreement on the record…
Westvaco Corporation
Printer-slotter lockout violation affirmed
Westvaco employees adjusted the cutting and slotting heads of a paperboard printer-slotter between customer orders without locking out the machine. The Commission held that the adjustments were “setting up” performed before normal production operations, so they did not qualify for the exception for…
Action Craft, Inc.
Penalties reduced for eight manufacturing violations
Action Craft manufactured small fishing boats with about 18 employees at a facility in Cape Coral, Florida. OSHA cited eight serious conditions involving storage-area load limits and railings, dispensing flammable liquids, a modified forklift, and guarding on a cylinder machine, bandsaw, and bench…
Ohio Pizza Products Supply Co., Inc., d/b/a Presto America's Favorite Food
Willful sheeter citation reduced to serious
Presto used a dough sheeter in its pizza-shell bakery, where larger dough balls repeatedly jammed beneath a guard near the machine's rollers. Two employees sustained hand injuries while trying to push dough through the rollers. The judge found the guard inadequate and rejected the company's…
Conagra Flour Milling Company
Commission splits flour-mill safety citations and assesses $500
Conagra operated a flour-milling facility in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, where OSHA cited battery servicing, powered industrial trucks, machine guarding, compressed-air cleaning, and grain-handling practices. The Commission vacated the personal-protective-equipment and eyewash items because OSHA's…
Waste Processing Equipment, Inc.
Eleven of twelve serious items affirmed, one vacated, penalty cut to $4,600
Waste Processing Equipment, Inc. runs a manufacturing plant in Rainsville, Alabama, with about 28 employees making paper balers and other waste-handling equipment. A September 1991 OSHA inspection led to a serious citation with 12 items and a proposed penalty of $12,500, plus an "other" citation…
Trinity Industries, Inc.
Full-scope inspection warrant upheld
Trinity manufactured tanks and pressure vessels at a Sharonville, Ohio, facility. After an employee complaint, OSHA obtained a warrant authorizing a limited complaint inspection, a records review, and a full-scope inspection if neutral administrative-plan criteria were met. The facility's…
Alaska Trawl Fisheries, Inc.
OSHA jurisdiction over factory vessels affirmed
Alaska Trawl Fisheries and Golden Age Fisheries operated vessels that caught and processed fish near Dutch Harbor, Alaska. OSHA cited machine guarding, passageway, recordkeeping, welding-gas storage, and hazard-communication conditions aboard the vessels. The companies stipulated to the violations…
Trinity Industries Inc.
Machine and electrical case settled for $800
OSHA inspected two Trinity Industries railcar fabrication plants in Dallas and cited numerous machine guarding, crane, electrical, tool, fire extinguisher, sling, and hazard communication conditions. An OSHRC judge affirmed several serious and other-than-serious items and vacated others. During…
Jefferson Smurfit Corporation
Feeder-belt item vacated for lack of employee exposure
Jefferson Smurfit manufactured cardboard boxes using a straight-line gluer with exposed nip points on a product-feeding belt and on separate power-transmission belts. The Commission vacated the item concerning the feeder belt because OSHA did not prove that employees were exposed to a…
Miami Industries, Inc.
OSHA approval estopped stricter machine-guarding enforcement
Miami Industries used hinged barrier guards around tube-mill rollers after an OSHA compliance officer approved the design following an earlier citation. OSHA also used Miami's blueprints as a model for other employers and conducted later inspections for almost ten years without citing the guards…
National Metalwares, Inc.
Machine-guarding case settled for $12,000
National Metalwares faced a failure-to-abate allegation involving mechanical power press dies and a repeat machine-guarding item involving a tube bender. The settlement withdrew the failure-to-abate allegation for one die and reduced that penalty to $11,500. The parties approved die-specific…
Armour Food Company
Two guarding items affirmed and six items vacated
OSHA cited multiple conditions at Armour's meat-processing plant, and the Commission reviewed selected personal-protective-equipment, machine-guarding, power-transmission, centrifuge, and compressed-gas items. It vacated the mesh-glove item because OSHA did not prove that sharpening slicer blades…
Harrison Furniture Manufacturing Company
Commission approves withdrawal of all citations
OSHA cited Harrison Furniture Manufacturing Company for numerous conditions at its Arkansas furniture plant after an inspection conducted under a warrant. The earlier litigation addressed whether evidence from a plant-wide inspection should be suppressed when the warrant application was based on…
Pennsylvania Steel Foundry & Machine Company
Foundry settlement enforced and machine items split
OSHA's inspection of Pennsylvania Steel Foundry produced citations alleging 298 violations. The Commission declined to suppress the inspection evidence, holding that the later rule against ex parte warrants did not apply retroactively and that suppression would provide little deterrent value under…
Four Flags Drilling Company
Kelly-bushing citation withdrawn under abatement settlement
Four Flags drilled oil and gas wells and was cited for failing to guard a smooth rotary-table kelly bushing, with a proposed $300 penalty. The judge affirmed the serious item and penalty, and Commission review followed. In settlement, Four Flags agreed either to use a contact-preventing guard or to…
Hamilton Die Cast, Inc.
Machine-guarding citation vacated for inadequate notice
Hamilton Die Cast used shields to protect employees from hot aluminum expelled by die-casting machines. During core-pull operations, the shield on one machine was open because the mechanism extended beyond the shield's normal travel area. Hamilton's president testified that OSHA officials had…
Syntron, Inc.
Metal saw guarding citation vacated
Syntron's metal cut-off saw had an unguarded unused portion of its blade, and the operator stood about a foot away while the saw automatically cut material held in a vise. After reviewing the record and a videotape of the machine, the Commission majority agreed with the judge that employees' hands…
Plains Cooperative Oil Mill, Inc.
Screw-conveyor guarding violation affirmed
Plains Cooperative Oil Mill failed to adequately guard a screw conveyor in its cottonseed mill. The Commission adopted the judge's conclusion that the conveyor was a machine covered by the general machine-guarding rule and that Plains failed to comply. It emphasized that an employer violates the…
Blocksom and Company
Lockout, cord, and machine items affirmed in part
The Commission reviewed citations involving emergency respirator training, electrical grounding and cord splices, lockout procedures, and guarding on several machines at Blocksom's stuffing-material plant. It vacated the respirator-training item because the company no longer intended employees to…
General Electric Company
Press-guarding violation affirmed as serious
General Electric used a powder compacting press whose point-of-operation guard had to be removed for inspection and maintenance. With a selector key broken in the run position, an operator used the guard microswitch to jog the press, accidentally activated the rams, and suffered crushed fingers…
Marson Corporation
Mixer-guarding violation affirmed
Marson manufactured autobody filler in a mixer whose rotating blades were covered by a removable steel grate. Workers sometimes removed the grate while adding fiberglass, and a new employee suffered an arm amputation while feeding material into the running mixer. The Commission found that the…
The Stacey Manufacturing Company
Shear item vacated and punch item affirmed
OSHA cited Stacey for inadequate guarding on a large steel shear and a hole-punch machine. The Commission vacated the shear item because horizontal pipes and bars greatly restricted access to the blade and hold-downs, employees had no operational reason to place their hands there, and the Secretary…
Ladish Company
Fatal wheelabrator guarding violation affirmed
A wheelabrator helper was fatally crushed between a descending loader arm and a conveyor while working from a platform behind the loader. Employees regularly used that platform to free stuck forgings, could not hear the loader in the noisy area, and were outside the operator's view. The Commission…
Consolidated Aluminum Corporation
Slitter nip-point violations affirmed as nonserious
Employees working around three slitters and a cold mill could contact moving aluminum stock and be pulled into unguarded nip points. The Commission held that an unsigned oral settlement was not enforceable, an earlier settlement did not excuse the later guarding violations, and the employer failed…
Leone Industries, Inc.
Repeated classification requires a decision
OSHA cited Leone Industries for repeated machine-guarding violations and proposed penalties totaling $4,200. The judge found two serious violations and assessed $1,000 for each, but did not decide whether they were repeated because the penalties fit within the serious-violation limit. The…
Vampco Metal Products, Inc.
Press-brake guarding dispute remanded under employer defense burdens
Vampco manufactured custom metal products with press brakes whose operators held material near the point of operation. After Vampco did not abate an uncontested machine-guarding citation, the judge vacated failure-to-correct items for two presses because he found that feasible guarding had not been…
American Package Company, Inc.
Wrapper citation affirmed and paper-cutter citation vacated
American Package manufactured paper boxes with wrapping machines and guillotine paper cutters. The Commission found that wrapper operators could activate a cycle and then reach into the crushing point of operation. It rejected the company's impossibility defense because the company had not tried…
Southwestern Electric Power Company
Unguarded lathe chucks remain de minimis
Southwestern Electric Power Company did not guard the rotating chucks on two lathes, contrary to the general machine-guarding standard. The judge reduced the alleged nonserious violations to de minimis because the hazards were too slight to require abatement or a penalty. The Commission affirmed…
The Duriron Company, Inc.
Foundry case severed from heat-stress review
Two cases from concurrent inspections of Duriron's foundry were consolidated for hearing and decision. The judge resolved several molten-metal, machine-guarding, and grinding-machine items in Docket 77-2846, and the Commission corrected a clerical error to reflect that two grinding-machine items…
Hughes Drilling Company Inc.
Drilling citations partly vacated without substantive Commission review
Hughes Drilling operated an oil and gas drilling rig where an employee was caught in a catline and cathead after the line was used without being attached to a load. The judge vacated a general duty clause citation because the Secretary did not prove that the driller's absence from the controls was…
Ralston Purina Company
Unguarded auger-pit violation affirmed
Ralston Purina operated a feed mill where an employee was fatally injured after entering a pit containing an operating screw conveyor. The pit's steel grille had been removed to improve material flow, and its remaining metal lid was bent, warped, and easily dislodged. The Commission found employee…
Papertronics, Div. of Hammermill Paper co.
Machine-guarding citation reversed for lack of proof of a hazard
A paper-products plant was cited for failing to guard the nip points and pinch points on several slitter-rewinder machines and a folding machine under the general machine-guarding standard, 29 C.F.R. § 1910.212(a)(1). The administrative law judge affirmed the violation, but the Commission reversed…
Hood Sailmakers, Inc.
Missing needle guards found de minimis
Hood Sailmakers operated sewing machines without needle guards, and the judge vacated OSHA's machine-guarding citation. The Commission reversed because guards were available, the company's mechanic said a safe guard could be designed, and prior guards had been removed mainly because operators…
United States Steel Corporation
Conveyor-guarding case remanded
OSHA cited unguarded nip points on a conveyor carrying screened coke dust at U.S. Steel's mill. The judge granted summary judgment to the company, reasoning that the general machine-guarding rule covered processing machines rather than conveyors used only to transport material. The Commission held…
Aluminum Coil Anodizing Corp.
Multi-item citation upheld in part after inspection challenge failed
OSHA inspected Aluminum Coil Anodizing's Illinois plant after receiving a complaint from someone who was not an employee or employee representative. The Commission held that the complaint's source and purpose did not invalidate the inspection because OSHA also had broad general authority to inspect…
Alliance Enclosures, Inc.
Machine-guarding decision affirmed without substantive Commission review
OSHA cited Alliance Enclosures for missing guards on a radial arm saw, a power brake, a power shear, and four power presses. The judge found that the saw had an adjustable travel stop and vacated that part of the first citation, but affirmed the missing blade guard and the point-of-operation…
Allied Equipment Company
Numerous shop violations affirmed with a one-cent total penalty
Allied Equipment manufactured horse and stock trailers and repaired truck bodies and frames with five employees. The judge affirmed numerous nonserious violations involving flammable-liquid storage, fire extinguishers, machine and power-transmission guarding, grinder adjustments, a portable saw…
Zeller Machinery Co., Inc.
Late contest of machine-guarding citation dismissed
Zeller Machinery filed its written contest of a serious machine-guarding citation 25 working days after receiving the citation and proposed penalty. The company said it mistakenly believed the 15-day period began on the abatement date and had orally advised OSHA that it intended to contest. The…
A. E. Burgess Leather Co., Inc.
Beam dinker machine-guarding citation reinstated
A. E. Burgess Leather used beam dinker machines to punch small washers from scrap leather. Operators held a die by hand while a machine head descended, leaving their hands able to enter the space between the head and die or between the die and table. The judge vacated the citation because the…
Southeastern Aluminum Products
Metal cut-off saw guarding citation vacated
Southeastern used two Rockwell cut-off machines with metal saw blades rather than abrasive wheels. OSHA alleged that the manufacturer-supplied guards were inadequate under the general machine-guarding standard, while the company argued that the machines and guards were designed under the…
Allis-Chalmers Corporation
Side-shield item upheld, tractor-guarding item vacated
Allis-Chalmers employees used machine tools and compressed air in areas where metal particles could approach their eyes from the front or side. Although employees wore frontal safety glasses, the company did not generally require side shields. The Commission affirmed the eye-protection item and its…
Edward Hines Lumber Co.
Mixed sawmill citations resolved with $510 penalty
OSHA cited Edward Hines Lumber after inspecting its large Oregon sawmill complex, alleging numerous machine-guarding, conveyor, walkway, ladder, and power-transmission violations. The judge vacated many items because the cited standards were advisory or inapplicable, the machinery was guarded by…
The Gould-Mersereau Co., Inc.
Machine-guarding violations partly affirmed
Gould-Mersereau manufactured drapery hardware at a New York City plant where an inspection produced thirteen nonserious citation items. The judge affirmed machine-guarding violations involving feed rollers, a power-press pedal, and ten riveting machines, but vacated the portions involving a…
George T. Gerhardt Company, Inc.
Failure-to-correct penalties reduced to $300
George T. Gerhardt Company was a small sheet-metal manufacturer cited for unguarded belts and pulleys, unguarded machinery, and a spliced electrical cord. It did not contest the original citation, and a reinspection found the three conditions had not been corrected within the stated abatement…
American Bag Co., Inc.
Failure-to-abate penalties reduced
American Bag was a 17-employee leather bag manufacturer in Puerto Rico. After the company did not contest an initial citation, OSHA reinspected and alleged that multiple violations had not been corrected, that the citation had not been posted, and that an injury log had not been maintained. The…
Signode Corporation
Steel-strapping rewinder guarding violation affirmed
Signode used lines of machines to rewind steel strapping onto reels weighing about 100 pounds. Each machine had an unguarded wheel with six rotating paddles, and employees moved among operating machines while changing reels. The Commission held that the paddles presented a hazard because they could…
Collator Corporation
Press-brake subitems vacated and remaining citation affirmed
Collator Corporation manufactured collating machines at a Seattle plant. Its notice of contest referred only to the proposed penalties, but its answer and statements at the hearing showed that it also intended to contest two press-brake guarding subitems. The Commission therefore treated those…
Acme Metal, Inc.
Penalty-only contests leave citations final
Acme Metal operated two steel-fabricating plants in Portland, Oregon. OSHA cited machine-guarding and posting violations after inspecting both plants. The Commission held that Acme's notices of contest placed only the penalties at issue for the table saw in docket 1811 and the metal saw and posting…
Diebold, Inc.
Press brakes required point-of-operation guarding
Diebold operated unguarded press brakes and mechanical punch presses at three Ohio plants. The Commission held that press brakes, although excluded from the specific mechanical-power-press rule, remained subject to the general machine-guarding requirements. It rejected Diebold's vagueness and…
Akron Brick & Block Co.
Work rules and tools were not machine guarding
Akron Brick & Block used an automatic cuber to stack finished concrete blocks. When the machine misplaced a block, operators were instructed to turn a safety switch, use a metal hook, and avoid entering the point of operation. Employees nevertheless entered the machine during its operating cycle…
Amory Cotton Oil Company
Screw-conveyor guarding amendment remanded
Amory Cotton Oil employees manually pushed cottonseed into an uncovered floor-level screw conveyor, and one employee was fatally injured. OSHA cited a power-transmission shaft standard, but at the hearing sought to add an open-sided-floor standard and the general machine-guarding standard after the…
Penn Central Transportation Co.
Rail-shop safety violations and $625 penalty affirmed
OSHA cited Penn Central's railway maintenance and repair shop for 15 nonserious conditions involving fall protection, fire and chemical safety, compressed air, machine and electrical guarding, and failure to post the OSHA notice. The Commission agreed that railroad status did not remove OSHA…
Boise Cascade Corporation
Sawmill guarding violations and $300 penalty affirmed
OSHA cited Boise Cascade's sawmill for inadequate guarding of end saws on board and cant trimmers and of components on a Bolter saw. The equipment had some guards, but the judge found that the cited guards did not adequately protect employees and that 29 C.F.R. §§ 1910.265(e)(4)(ii)(b) and…
Boise Cascade Corporation
Sawmill guarding violations and $300 penalty affirmed
OSHA cited Boise Cascade's sawmill for inadequate guarding of end saws on board and cant trimmers and of components on a Bolter saw. The equipment had some guards, but the judge found that the cited guards did not adequately protect employees and that 29 C.F.R. §§ 1910.265(e)(4)(ii)(b) and…
Worcester Pressed Steel Company
Duplicate aisle item vacated, higher penalties sustained
Worcester Pressed Steel Company operated a large metal-stamping plant cited for 40 nonserious safety violations. The cited conditions included poor housekeeping and floors, obstructed and unmarked aisles, missing exit signs and eye protection, forklift hazards, inadequate machine guarding, and…
Midwest By Products, Inc.
First-aid and LP-gas items reinstated, ladder item vacated
OSHA cited hazards at Midwest By Products' rendering plant, including unguarded screw conveyors, defective ladders, inadequate first-aid preparation, an unsafe grinder, electrical defects, and an unprotected propane tank. The company admitted most of the nonserious violations and later acknowledged…
GTE Automatic Electric, Inc.
Emergency-wash item affirmed and drill-press item vacated
GTE Automatic Electric was cited for an employee handling materials near acid baths without eye protection, emergency showers and eye washes located 50 to 75 feet from plating tanks, paint residue in spray booths, and unguarded drill presses. The judge affirmed the eye-protection and emergency-wash…
C & R Cabinet Company
Failure-to-abate and posting penalties assessed
A follow-up inspection found six unabated machine-guarding violations involving ripsaws, radial saws, sanders, and a conveyor. C & R Cabinet had corrected seven other items and had ordered some missing guard parts, so the judge reduced the proposed $1,675 failure-to-abate penalty to $825. The…
Paccar, Inc.
Press-brake guarding violation affirmed, tank-roll item vacated
Paccar used a tank roll machine and eight press brakes to form metal parts at a truck manufacturing facility. The Commission found that the press brakes lacked point-of-operation protection and that guards over their power-transmission components did not address that separate hazard. It held that…
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.