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.
No decisions match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
Southern Forming, Inc.
Broad safety violations affirmed at $69,150
Southern Forming, also known as Suncrete Construction, performed concrete formwork at construction sites in Sunny Isles and Delray Beach, Florida. At the Sunny Isles site, an employee fell to his death from a stairway, and OSHA's investigation identified numerous fall-protection, stairway…
Anderson Excavating & Wrecking Co.
Bridge fall and hard-hat violations affirmed
Anderson Excavating & Wrecking was the demolition contractor removing the old Talmadge Bridge over the Savannah River. The ALJ held that OSHA's construction standards applied because the demolition was part of the larger bridge-replacement project and used construction trades and methods. Employees…
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…
Dover Elevator Company
Unsecured-ladder item reduced to de minimis by settlement
Dover Elevator was an elevator subcontractor on a renovation project in New York City where OSHA issued serious, repeat, and other-than-serious citations. The Commission directed review only of an unsecured portable ladder item that the ALJ had affirmed as repeated with a $1,000 penalty. In a…
Jersey Steel Erectors
Repeat hard-hat violation affirmed for $4,800
An OSHA compliance officer observed two Jersey Steel Erectors employees connecting steel at a New Jersey strip-mall project without hard hats. Jersey had a written rule, distributed safety information, and discussed head protection at toolbox meetings, but steel connectors frequently resisted…
Custom Services
Settlement approved with $975 in penalties
OSHA issued Custom Services a serious citation containing several construction safety items. At the hearing, the parties reached a settlement and placed its terms on the record. The judge adopted the agreement, which withdrew one scaffold item and affirmed the remaining listed violations. The order…
Tri-State Construction, Inc. and National Engineering & Contracting Company
Inspection upheld and bridge-edge item vacated
Tri-State and National worked on a multi-employer interstate-highway rehabilitation project in Cincinnati. The employers challenged OSHA's initial warrantless inspection of an outdoor bridge work area and the later project-wide inspection conducted under a warrant. The Commission held that the…
Acrom Construction Services, Inc.
Oral notice could not contest citations
Acrom Construction received hardhat and guardrail citations while working as a drywall subcontractor. Its project manager called OSHA during the contest period because he believed the general contractor, rather than Acrom, was responsible, but Acrom did not submit a written contest until about…
Keefe Earth Boring Company, Inc.
Relief from seven uncontested citation orders denied
Keefe Earth Boring Company failed to file timely notices of contest to seven citation orders issued in 1987 and 1988 involving trenching, training, and hard-hat requirements. After the Secretary began a federal penalty-collection action, the company sought relief under Federal Rule of Civil…
Trumid Construction Co., Inc.
Serious trench-support and hard-hat violations affirmed
A Trumid employee was fatally injured when a trench wall collapsed during pipe-laying work, and the company did not report the accident to OSHA. The ALJ vacated the trench-support item after measuring depth from a bench below the original ground level, but affirmed a hard-hat violation. The…
Calang Corporation
Willful trench violations affirmed with $8,000 penalty
Calang employees and the company president worked in a roughly nine-foot-deep sewer trench with sandy soil, inadequate sloping, no shoring, and a spoil pile at the trench edge. Before excavation began, the OSHA inspector told the president that the trench needed approximately one-to-one sloping or…
Adams Steel Erection, Inc.
Perimeter and safety-net items affirmed, ladderway item vacated
Adams Steel was the steel-erection subcontractor on a multistory Pittsburgh construction project. The Commission affirmed a perimeter-railing item because decking remained temporary until it was welded into the structure as permanent flooring. It vacated a ladderway-opening item because the…
Spartan Rigging Corporation & Atlantic Rigging Corporation
Safety-belt citations withdrawn
OSHA cited Spartan Rigging and Atlantic Rigging for allegedly failing to require employees dismantling scaffolds to wear tied-off safety belts. An administrative law judge affirmed the serious citations under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a), and the employers obtained Commission review. After further…
Adams Steel Erection, Inc.
Two citation items reinstated after court review
The Commission had previously reversed the administrative law judge and vacated two citation items against Adams Steel Erection. The Third Circuit granted the Secretary’s petition for review and directed the Commission to reinstate the judge’s decision. The Commission therefore affirmed a serious…
Adams Steel Erection, Inc.
Safety-net and hard-hat citation items vacated
Adams Steel erected structural steel on a four-story building and used temporary flooring below employees working on perimeter beams. The Commission majority vacated a safety-net item because the steel-erection fall-protection rules in Subpart R governed the hazard and preempted the general…
Adams Steel Erection, Inc.
Fall-net and hard-hat items vacated
Adams Steel was the steel-erection subcontractor on a four-story construction project. The judge affirmed a safety-net item for ironworkers on perimeter beams and a head-protection item for five workers without hard hats. A Commission majority held that the steel-erection fall-protection standards…
Clarence M. Jones, d/b/a C. Jones Co.
Ladder, protective equipment, and posting violations affirmed
Clarence M. Jones was renovating an apartment building with workers under a foreman's supervision. OSHA cited defective ladders, the failure to use head and eye protection, and the failure to post the required OSHA notice. The Commission held that Jones was an employer covered by the Act, his local…
Diamond Roofing Company, Inc.
Roof fall-protection case remanded for defenses
Diamond Roofing employees installed roofing on a narrow pedestrian walkway about 27 feet above a concrete sidewalk and a heavily traveled road. They worked near the roof edge without safety belts, nets, guardrails, or any other listed fall protection. The Commission held that the permanent metal…
Andy Anderson, d/b/a Andy Anderson Irrigation & Construction
Trench-cave-in violation upheld, penalty cut to $150
This employer was installing sewer pipe in a 70-foot trench that ran 6 to 8 feet deep with nearly vertical, unshored walls and no ladder for exit. OSHA cited a serious violation for failing to shore or slope the trench under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(c) and for failing to provide an adequate means of…
Joe Richter, Contractor, Inc.
Trench citations and $265 penalties affirmed
Three employees worked in an eight-foot-deep trench beside a heavily traveled road, with a vertical unshored wall, water in the trench, and spoil near an edge. They lacked head protection, and the earth ramps serving as exits were wet, unstable, and partly obstructed. The Commission found that pipe…
Reinhardt's Plumbing & Heating, Inc.
Hardhat citation affirmed
Reinhardt's Plumbing & Heating had employees working around the installation of an overhead heater. Workers below the heater could have been struck by channel-lock pliers, pipe, nuts, or bolts used in the installation. The company argued that skilled workers should decide whether hardhats were…
James Mellon, d/b/a Huntington Metal Window Service
Floor-opening and hard-hat violations affirmed
Huntington Metal Window Service employees installing windows used a second-floor stairway beside a large opening with incomplete guarding and a 12-foot drop. The judge found that the subcontractor could have covered enough of the opening to protect its workers without creating the union conflict it…
Julius Hochman, d/b/a Hochman Roofing Company
Hard-hat item affirmed and roof-edge citation vacated
A Hochman Roofing ground worker stood below the edge of a roof where construction materials were located near the perimeter. The judge found that falling objects could strike the worker and affirmed the nonserious hard-hat violation with a $25 penalty. A separate serious citation alleged that two…
Petrocelli Electric Co., Inc.
Hard-hat item affirmed and posting item vacated
OSHA cited electrical contractor Petrocelli for failing to post the required OSHA notice and for employees working without protective helmets at a Brooklyn construction site. The judge vacated the posting item because OSHA had not furnished the company with the notice before the inspection…
Calcedo Construction Corporation
Scaffold charge reduced from willful to serious
Calcedo employees worked below overhead steel activity without hard hats, cut brick without eye protection, and used a 25-foot scaffold without a proper access ladder, complete planking, guardrails, or toeboards. The judge affirmed the head, eye, ladder, and scaffold citations. He found the…
Space Age Concrete & Masonry, Inc.
Fall-hazard items affirmed and four other citations vacated
Space Age Concrete & Masonry worked as a masonry subcontractor on a multistory building in Naples, Florida. Inspections found employees near uncovered elevator-shaft openings and working at unguarded edges without effective fall protection. The judge affirmed the floor-opening and…
Central Building and Cleaning Co., Inc.
Scaffold and protective-equipment violations affirmed
An employee sandblasted from a two-point suspension scaffold 24 feet above a Chicago sidewalk. The judge found that the cornice hooks were securely installed, but the scaffold was improperly tied to window-cleaner anchors, the sandblaster lacked a safety belt and lifeline, and required rails and…
Arthur and Toni Sheets, doing business as Sheets Tree Expert Company
Repeat hard-hat violation affirmed with $10 penalty
An employee of the small tree-trimming company worked beneath a large limb being lowered by a boom truck without wearing a protective helmet. The company had supplied hard hats, face shields, ear guards, and protective glasses, but employees resisted using them. The judge held that employee…
Savina Home Industries, Inc.
Thirteen construction violations affirmed
At a retail-store construction site, the judge affirmed thirteen nonserious items involving missing hard hats, deficient mobile-scaffold rails, planking and bracing, frayed drill cords, an unapproved receptacle, a knotted winch cable, reversed wire-rope clips, a damaged ladder, a mushroomed…
Miller Construction Company
Two trench items vacated for insufficient proof
Miller Construction was installing an underground water line when OSHA cited it for a hard-hat violation, material stored too close to a trench edge, and inadequate protection against a trench collapse. The company admitted the hard-hat item, which carried a $25 penalty. The judge found that…
Underhill Construction Corp. and DIC Concrete, trading as DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Construction violations upheld with penalty reductions
DIC-Underhill was erecting concrete high-rise structures at a large New York construction site. A serious guardrail citation and $1,000 penalty became final because the company's notice of contest referred only to a later six-item nonserious citation. The judge merged a duplicate nonserious…
Underhill Construction Corp. and DIC Concrete Corp., trading as DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Safety-belt and hard-hat items upheld
Two DIC-Underhill employees grouted elevator sills near an unguarded shaft without properly secured safety belts. The Commission affirmed the personal-protective-equipment violation but vacated a separately pleaded lifeline-use provision because that provision did not require employees to use…
Frank Briscoe Company, Inc.
Construction citations partly upheld and partly vacated
Frank Briscoe was the general contractor for a multilevel building project where OSHA cited housekeeping, floor-opening, scaffold, ladder, fall-protection, and hard-hat conditions. The Commission vacated a general personal-protective-equipment item because OSHA did not identify or prove a feasible…
Underhill Construction Corp. and DIC Concrete, dba DIC Underhill, a Joint Venture
High-rise helmet and perimeter items expanded
DIC Underhill was the concrete subcontractor responsible for superstructures on a 47-building high-rise project. OSHA observed employees without helmets in areas exposed to impact and falling-object hazards, and employees working throughout five unguarded five-story buildings. The Commission held…
A. A. Will Sand & Gravel Corp.
Conveyor-related construction citations vacated
A. A. Will delivered roofing gravel to a Boston construction site, where its driver released gravel into a conveyor hopper as workers needed it on the roof and occasionally adjusted the conveyor. The Commission held that these activities were more than mere delivery and were an integral part of…
Gumina Building & Construction Co.
Mixed construction-site ruling affirmed
Gumina was the general contractor on a college construction project where employees worked without hard hats, debris created tripping hazards, and oxygen cylinders were not secured upright. A separate eye-protection item was vacated because the evidence did not establish that safety glasses were…
W. N. Couch Construction Company
Trench-protection violations affirmed
W. N. Couch Construction had employees working in an 11-foot-deep trench whose wall included at least 4 1/2 feet of unstable backfill. The trench was also next to backfilled excavations, a heavily traveled road, and an operating backhoe, but the company used no shoring, bracing, or other cave-in…
Abbott-Sommer, Inc.
Roofing citations mostly affirmed without merits review
Abbott-Sommer was a roofing subcontractor working on a flat roof in Totowa, New Jersey. The judge vacated an item alleging inadequate potable water but affirmed items involving head protection during slag hoisting, an enclosed debris chute, perimeter guarding, and fall-protection equipment for an…
Paul L. Heath, d/b/a Paul L. Heath Contracting Co.
Trench and PPE citations affirmed with $525 in penalties
Paul L. Heath Contracting excavated a sewer trench that was about 55 feet long, six to eight feet deep, and nearly vertical, without shoring or adequate sloping. An OSHA inspector testified that he saw the company's employee climbing out of the trench at a point about seven feet deep. The employee…
Anchorage Plastering Company
Scaffold citations vacated for lack of commerce proof
OSHA cited alleged scaffold, hard-hat, and flammable-liquid violations while Anchorage Plastering employees applied stucco at an Alaska medical-center project. The judge did not reach the safety merits. He held that the Secretary failed to prove that the small plastering business affected…
Danco construction Company
Mixed ruling on sewer-work citations and penalties
Danco received consolidated citations from three Little Rock sewer-construction sites involving posting, hard hats, fire protection, fuel handling, trenching, electrical equipment, ladders, traffic visibility, and spoil placement. The Commission held that Danco's timely contest of a citation also…
Leon Marrano & Sons, Inc.
High-rise fall and head-protection citations affirmed
Leon Marrano was the concrete subcontractor on a nineteen-story apartment project in New York. Employees working with flying forms on the tenth floor moved around the forms by swinging partly over the building edge without safety belts or lifelines. The judge found that the company had not…
Davenport Brothers, Inc.
Trench and head-protection violations affirmed, penalty reduced to $200
Davenport Brothers sent two employees into a trench to repair a broken water line. The judge found that the trench was more than five feet deep and was not shored, braced, or sloped, and that neither employee wore protective headgear. The Commission affirmed the serious trenching violation and the…
State Contracting Co., Inc.
Hard-hat item affirmed, trench penalties reduced
Two State Contracting employees worked in a deep trench that lacked required shoring or sloping, had no ladder for exit, and exposed them to falling material without hard hats. The employer had supplied hard hats and required their use, but the parties tried whether the employees actually wore…
E. C. Ernst, Inc.
Delayed hard-hat item vacated, housekeeping affirmed
OSHA inspected Ernst's electrical work at a multi-employer construction site and issued a citation 69 days later. The hard-hat item involved an employee who left Ernst before the citation issued and could not later be located. The Commission affirmed vacation of that item because the delay…
Lipsky & Rosenthal, Inc.
Sixth-floor guardrail item reduced to non-serious
Lipsky & Rosenthal was a plumbing subcontractor on an apartment construction project. Three employees hauled plumbing materials while standing at the unguarded edge of a sixth floor. The Secretary charged that condition as non-serious, but the judge classified it as serious and assessed $250. The…
Automatic Elevator Corporation
Elevator-shaft scaffold violation classified as serious
An Automatic Elevator foreman worked in an elevator shaft on a platform made from two two-by-four boards about 20 feet above a concrete floor. The platform lacked required guardrails and overhead protection, and open shaft entrances lacked toeboards; the foreman also wore a bump cap instead of…
Standard Glass & Supply Co.
Serious scaffold citation affirmed with low penalty
Standard Glass & Supply installed exterior glass and metal panels at a two-story building in Tennessee. OSHA found one employee briefly working about 20 feet above the ground on a scaffold without guardrails or toeboards and with nonconforming planking and bracing, while two employees lacked…
Standard Glass Company, Inc.
Hard-hat citation vacated as isolated employee conduct
Two Standard Glass employees left company vehicles and spent less than five minutes in a hard-hat area without protective helmets. The company had required hard hats before the OSH Act, supplied them to workers and visitors, instructed employees to wear them, and enforced the rule with discipline…
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.