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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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…
Advance Specialty Company, Inc.
Cyanide-gas and guarding violations affirmed
Advance Specialty fabricated wire parts at a worksite shared with Platers and Coaters, an affiliated plating operation under common ownership and management. An employee of each company died when an inexperienced worker mixed acid salts with sodium cyanide and produced hydrogen cyanide gas. The…
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…
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…
Deering Milliken, Inc.; Alan B. Sibley Mill
Catwalk citation affirmed without penalty
A 20-foot catwalk about nine feet above a concrete floor had a rail on one side but no guardrail on the other. Pipes located up to two and one-half feet from the open edge left gaps through which an employee could fall, so they were not equivalent protection. The Commission affirmed the violation…
Cooper Industries, Inc.
Spray-booth penalty restored to proposed amount
Cooper Industries operated a small Ohio metal fabrication, welding, and painting plant. The citation included items involving respirators, a dip-tank railing, a forklift horn, spray-booth ventilation, and combustible residue in a spray booth. On review, the Commission declined to decide whether the…
General Electric Company, Inc.
Mixed ruling on extensive turbine-plant citations
OSHA issued General Electric numerous serious, nonserious, repeated, and willful citations after inspecting its Schenectady steam turbine and generator facilities. The Commission affirmed or restored violations involving ladder safety, portable tools, welder fall protection, housekeeping, fire…
California Rotogravure Co.
Storage-roof violation affirmed without penalty
California Rotogravure operated a printing plant where employees occasionally climbed onto an unguarded office roof to handle stored materials. The Commission held that the roof became a working platform when employees used it and affirmed the guardrail violation without a penalty. It vacated a…
St. Paul Feed & Supply, Inc.
Penalty-only contest leaves citations final
St. Paul Feed & Supply received one serious and 17 nonserious citation items at its Oregon agricultural-products facility. Its notice of contest identified only the proposed penalties. The Commission held that this limited notice left the citations and their abatement periods as final orders, so…
George A. Hormel and Company
Hog-shaving platform guardrail citation affirmed
Hormel employees shaved hair from suspended hog carcasses while standing on a platform 58 inches above the floor. The carcass side of the platform lacked a guardrail, and OSHA issued a nonserious citation without proposing a penalty. The Commission found that gaps of 12 to 18 inches between…
F. H. Von Damm, Inc.
Three non-serious items and $35 penalty affirmed
F. H. Von Damm was a small wholesaler of animal feed, seeds, and agricultural supplies. The judge affirmed violations for failing to post the OSHA notice, failing to inspect two fire extinguishers annually, and lacking a maintenance tag on another extinguisher. He assessed $35 for the…
CAM Industries, Inc.
Confined-space welding ventilation item reinstated
CAM Industries fabricated steel products and received a multi-item citation covering electrical, welding, housekeeping, eye protection, crane, platform, and recordkeeping conditions. During OSHA's inspection, an employee was welding inside a roughly 100-cubic-foot tank while an available exhaust…
V. O. Hegsted d/b/a Challenger Supply
Pallet-plant citation resolved with $106 in penalties
Challenger Supply produced wooden pallets at a small Idaho plant and received a 12-item other-than-serious citation. The judge affirmed violations involving washing facilities, housekeeping, an unguarded elevated storage area, forklift controls, missing eye protection, electrical grounding and…
Milprint, Inc.
Fixed-stair item vacated for lack of proof
OSHA issued Milprint 13 non-serious citation items covering conditions at its Milwaukee plant. The judge affirmed nine items and vacated four, assessing penalties totaling $280. On review, the Commission reversed the fixed-stair item because OSHA did not prove that employees regularly used the…
Ventre Packing Co., Inc.
Citation vacated because the cooler top was not a platform
Ventre Packing used the top of an eight-to-nine-foot walk-in cooler extension to store pieces of a disassembled metal frame. OSHA cited the company because the elevated surface lacked perimeter guardrails, and the administrative law judge affirmed the citation with a $25 penalty. The Commission…
Dreher Pickle Company
Electrical and platform penalties increased to $1,500
Dreher Pickle Company operated wet processing areas with inadequately grounded electrical equipment. Employees had repeatedly received shocks from conveyor belts, management knew of those reports, and one employee died from probable electrical shock while standing in brine water and loading pickles…
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.