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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Universal Roofing & Sheet Metal Co.
Roof-edge PPE citation remanded under current precedent
OSHA cited Universal Roofing after an employee worked near a roof edge without personal fall protection. The judge vacated the citation, reasoning that the roof was safer than a temporary floor allowed by the safety-net rule and that a sloped-roof provision displaced the general PPE standard. The…
Easley Roofing & Sheet Metal Company, Inc.
Roof-edge and stairway items remanded
The judge found that Easley Roofing employees used a stairway with inadequate railings but classified the violation as de minimis. He also vacated a citation alleging that employees worked near a roof edge without personal fall protection because he placed the burden on the Secretary to prove that…
Republic Roofing Corporation
Roof-edge PPE citation remanded under revised burden rule
OSHA originally alleged that Republic Roofing failed to guard a roof perimeter, then amended the case to allege that employees lacked personal fall protection. The judge vacated the amended PPE citation because he placed the burden on the Secretary to plead and prove that the equipment was…
Wander Iron Works, Inc.
Scaffold, ladder, and housekeeping violations affirmed
A Wander Iron Works foreman worked 15 feet above ground on a bracket scaffold without required guardrails and with his safety belt untied. Another employee worked from a nearby ladder at the same height without a safety belt or other fall protection. The foreman's knowledge was imputed to the…
Brown-McKee, Inc.
Ladder, roof-edge, and floor-opening violations affirmed
Brown-McKee left an unsecured ladder available between roof levels where employees were working. Employees also pulled materials onto a roof 54 feet above ground without safety belts, lifelines, or perimeter guardrails. Three separate floor, ladderway, and hatchway openings exposed employees to…
Forest Park Roofing Company
Flat-roof PPE violation affirmed
Forest Park employees worked within one foot of the edge of a flat roof 27 feet above ground without guardrails, safety nets, or personal fall protection. The Commission held that the construction PPE standard applies to flat-roof work and that the Secretary identified a feasible belt-and-lifeline…
S & H Riggers & Erectors, Inc.
Panel-installation fall-protection violations affirmed
S & H Riggers employees guided precast concrete panels near unguarded building edges at two Atlanta construction sites, about 60 feet and 25 feet above the ground. The Commission rejected the employer's inspection-representation challenge because it did not show that the lack of a representative…
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…
Martin-Tomlinson Roofing Co., Inc.
Flat-roof safety-belt violation affirmed
Martin-Tomlinson employees worked as close as one foot from the edge of a flat roof about 20 feet above the ground without fall protection. The Commission held that the obvious fall hazard and OSHA's identification of safety belts and a lifeline established a prima facie violation of 29 C.F.R. §…
Voegele Company, Inc.
Roof fall-protection violation affirmed
Voegele employees installed a composition roof and worked near edges ranging from 14 to 35 feet above the ground without safety belts or perimeter guarding. The roof included steep side slopes, narrow gutters, and low parapets that increased the fall hazard. The Commission applied a…
Jensen Construction Company
Serious bridge fall-protection violation affirmed
Jensen Construction Company was building a bridge over the Kansas River when OSHA observed its superintendent walking on a steel girder about 50 feet above the ground without fall protection. The Commission upheld a serious violation of the personal protective equipment standard and rejected…
John's Roofing & Sheet Metal Co., Inc.
No fall protection near a 32-foot roof edge upheld
A roofing contractor had employees working near the edge of a round gymnasium roof, 32 feet above the ground, without any protection from falling, and OSHA cited it under the personal protective equipment standard, 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a), because the workers should have been wearing safety belts…
Valley Roofing Corporation; J. B. Eurell Company
Fall-protection citations vacated
Employees of Valley Roofing and J. B. Eurell worked near roof edges 13 and 29 feet above the ground without safety belts or another form of fall protection. OSHA cited both employers under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a), but the judge vacated the citations because the Secretary did not show a feasible…
Charles A. Gaetano Construction Corp.
Four serious citations affirmed
Charles A. Gaetano Construction was building a parking ramp when OSHA cited serious hazards involving an inadequately guarded saw, missing personal fall protection, incomplete floor-edge guardrails, and an unguarded carpenter's bracket scaffold. The company argued that an ANSI standard incorporated…
Favrot-Bellows, A Joint Venture
Serious fall-protection violation affirmed
OSHA alleged that Favrot-Bellows willfully violated fall-protection requirements stated in the alternative under three construction standards and proposed a $10,000 penalty. The judge instead affirmed a serious violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a) and assessed $500. On review, the employer expressly…
Lehr Construction Company
Broken-ladder and fall citations affirmed
Lehr employees used a ladder with a broken top rung as the only access to a work platform, and a welder straddled the top of an A-frame ladder near an unguarded platform edge about 25 feet above the ground without a safety belt. The Commission unanimously affirmed the broken-rung citation because…
F. H. Sparks of Maryland, Inc.
Penalty-only contest and fall citation affirmed
In the first docket, F. H. Sparks expressly contested only the penalties for an uninsulated welding-cable connection and a safety-belt citation, while stating that both conditions were violations and had been corrected. The Commission refused to let the company later expand that clear notice into a…
Constructora Maza, Inc.
Safety-belt violation reclassified as willful-serious
Constructora Maza, Inc. employees worked near an unguarded wall opening on the sixteenth floor without safety belts or other protective equipment. The Commission allowed OSHA to amend the alleged violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a) from repeated to willful because the standard, facts, and means of…
C. Kaufman, Inc.
Fall-protection citation affirmed for untied welder
C. Kaufman, Inc. assigned a welder to perform a short tack weld on an unguarded scaffold about 19 to 23 feet high without a tied-off safety belt. The Commission reversed the judge's vacation of the citation because the cited standards required fall protection regardless of the experienced…
Julian Hirschbein, d/b/a State Home Improvement Co.
Roofer fall-protection citation affirmed
State Home Improvement Company employees installed shingles on a sloped, two-story roof without safety belts, lifelines, catch platforms, or other protection capable of preventing a fall. A wooden toeboard helped prevent slipping but could not stop a fall of more than 16 feet, and testimony…
American Bechtel, Inc.
Safety-belt violation and $110 penalty affirmed
American Bechtel was the prime contractor building a soda ash processing plant. Two employees worked outside concrete forms without attached safety-belt lifelines, and the judge found that they were about 25 feet above the ground. The company argued that the work lasted only about five minutes, the…
Unit Builders, Incorporated
Safety-net violation and $100 penalty affirmed
Unit Builders was a steel erection subcontractor constructing a one-story warehouse. OSHA originally cited a steel-erection safety-net standard, then amended the charge at the hearing to the general construction safety-net standard while keeping the same factual allegation. Employees were working…
Schreiber Corporation
Roof-guardrail citation remained vacated
OSHA cited Schreiber Corporation for failing to provide guardrails or equivalent protection for employees working on a flat roof. Before the hearing, the Secretary sought to add alternative allegations under the personal-protective-equipment rule and the general duty clause. The judge denied the…
Tri-State Roofing and Sheet Metal Company
Flat-roof citation remained vacated
OSHA cited Tri-State Roofing for failing to install guardrails at the edge of a flat roof, then sought to add an alternative allegation that employees lacked safety belts. The judge vacated the original charge because the cited guardrail standard did not apply to flat roofs and denied the amendment…
Coastal Pile Driving, Inc.
Fall-protection amendment and violation affirmed
Coastal Pile Driving employees worked on steel beams about 25 feet above an excavated area without railings, safety belts, or lanyards. OSHA originally cited a runway-guarding standard and added the personal-protective-equipment rule as an alternative in the complaint. The judge found that the…
Sletten Construction Co.
Bridge-platform fall-protection violations affirmed
Sletten employees worked on a bridge cofferdam platform about 12 feet above the Yellowstone River with an unguarded edge and an uncovered opening. Another employee worked 18 feet above the ground without using a provided safety belt. The Commission rejected impossibility because guardrails could…
PPG Industries, Inc.
Ledge fall-protection violation and $500 penalty affirmed
Three PPG employees climbed outside guardrails to take measurements while working on a narrow ledge about 10 to 15 feet above a concrete deck with lumber and sawhorses below. Safety belts were available but were not tied off. The judge vacated the citation because he discounted the compliance…
Holman Erection Co., Inc.
Steelworker fall-protection penalty reduced to $100
Two Holman steel connectors traversed open beam gridwork about 35 feet above the ground without temporary floors, scaffolds, or safety nets beneath them. They wore safety belts, but the belts were not tied off while they moved along the beams. The Commission held that the specific steel-erection…
Emerick Construction, a corporation
Commission reviews only the penalties, drops the bulb-guard fine, and cuts the repeated-violation penalty
Emerick Construction was the general contractor building a hospital addition when two OSHA inspections produced four violations, later consolidated before Administrative Law Judge Thomas J. Donegan. Emerick did not dispute that the violations happened; it argued only that the penalties were too…
Blakeslee-Midwest Prestressed Concrete Co.
Commission affirms a serious fall-protection citation and rejects feasibility, greater-hazard, and evidence challenges
Blakeslee-Midwest was building a seven-story parking garage when an OSHA inspector saw a laborer, Walter Jackson, leaning out over the unguarded third floor, about 30 feet up, trimming the edge of a concrete slab with a saw and wearing no safety belt. The company was cited for a serious violation…
Williams Enterprises of Georgia, Inc.
Steelworker safety-belt citation remained vacated
Two steelworkers welded from beams 11 and 22 feet above temporary roof-level flooring without safety belts. The company complied with the specific steel-erection rule requiring temporary flooring within two stories or 30 feet. Commissioner Barnako viewed those specific rules as exclusive and would…
Capitol/Atlanta Construction Company
Fall-protection penalty reduced
Capitol/Atlanta was constructing a building in Georgia when two employees worked on steel purlins 25 to 45 feet above a concrete floor without fall protection. The company did not dispute that the employees needed protection while installing channeling, but argued that the citation described…
Able Contractors, Inc.
Trench and seat-belt issues remanded
Able Contractors was replacing a sewer line in a 12-foot-deep, unshored trench in Billings, Montana. The judge found a serious trench violation but rejected OSHA's willful characterization, and also affirmed a citation because earthmoving-equipment operators did not use the provided seat belts. The…
Combustion Engineering, Inc.
Commission affirms scaffold, ladder-access, and fall-protection violations at a power plant repair job
Combustion Engineering was doing metal repair work at the Navajo Generating Station in Page, Arizona, when an April 1976 OSHA inspection produced citations. The company contested three nonserious items and one serious item. Administrative Law Judge James A. Cronin Jr. sustained all of them…
Ray Evers Welding Co., Inc.
Steelworker fall citation affirmed
Two Ray Evers Welding employees worked on steel girders 18 to 24 feet above the ground without personal fall protection. The company challenged the personal protective equipment standard as vague and argued that steel-erection standards governed instead. The Commission rejected those arguments…
Bristol Steel & Iron Works, Inc.
Steel-erection fall citation affirmed
Two Bristol employees stood on a 12-to-18-inch-wide wall about 16 feet above concrete stairs while rigging a float scaffold. They wore safety belts and lanyards but did not use them, and Bristol knew of the condition. The commissioners disagreed over whether the general personal protective…
Jake Heaton Erecting Company, Inc.
Commission affirms a fall-protection citation because the foreman worked unbelted twenty feet up
Jake Heaton Erecting Company was cited under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a), the standard that requires employers to make workers wear appropriate personal protective equipment when exposed to hazards. A foreman knelt on a small platform about twenty feet above the ground, within a foot of the edge…
Western Waterproofing Company, Inc.
Roof fall-protection citations affirmed
Western Waterproofing employees resurfaced a roof about 61 feet high. Two employees spraying polyurethane foam worked near the roof edge without using available safety belts, lanyards, or lifelines. The Commission found that tied-off belts were effective and feasible, rejecting the company's claim…
All-State Industries, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail citation vacated
All-State employees were installing a flat roof when one employee fell 14.5 feet and was fatally injured. OSHA cited the company for failing to install perimeter guardrails and later sought to add an alternative allegation that employees should have used safety belts and lanyards. The Commission…
Orville Larkan, d/b/a Larkan Steel Erectors
Fall-protection violation affirmed
Two Larkan Steel Erectors employees worked about 23 feet above the ground without fall protection, one near a roof edge and one on a steel beam. The Commission found the fall hazard obvious and credited the judge's finding that safety belts had not been provided at the site. The company's president…
G & G Tong Rental Company
Derrick fall and escape citations affirmed
G & G Tong used a 75-to-80-foot derrick to service an oil well. The derrickman rode the hoist hook without tied-off fall protection, and the derrick lacked both an emergency escape line and a ladder safety device. The company admitted the conditions violated the cited standards but argued that the…
Coastal Pile Driving, Inc.
Fall and crane violations reclassified as serious
A Coastal Pile Driving employee repeatedly worked on a pile lead about 18 feet above the ground without fall protection. Several other employees worked within two to five feet of an unbarricaded rotating crane superstructure beside an excavation. The company admitted both violations but disputed…
McKee-Wellman Power Gas
Commission substitutes the general fall-protection standard and remands
McKee-Wellman Power Gas was constructing a 60-foot ore crusher process tower at a copper ore leaching plant in Arizona. An ironworker bolting steel at the 49-foot level stood on a narrow ledge with a safety belt that was not tied off, then fell and suffered fatal injuries. The Commission held that…
New York Roofing Co.
Commission declines review of a deficient petition and affirms the judge
New York Roofing Company was cited for violating 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a), the construction standard on personal protective equipment, and an Administrative Law Judge affirmed the citation. The company filed a petition for discretionary review, and a Commissioner directed the case for review. The…
Crescent Erection Company
Commission affirms a $300 violation for unsafe high-rise material handling
Crescent Erection Company employees were moving a roughly 500-pound load onto the unguarded 51st floor of the Sears Tower construction project. Workers stood between the load and the floor perimeter, pushed against force directed toward the outside of the building, and were not tied off. The…
Bill Turpin Painting Co., Inc
Commission affirms safety-belt violation on suspended scaffold
Bill Turpin Painting Co. was repainting a building when two employees worked from a suspended scaffold 28 feet above the ground without wearing the safety belts the company had supplied. OSHA cited the company under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a), and the company argued that the employees' conduct was an…
Claude Neon Federal Co.
Commission affirms safety-belt violation for sign work 100 feet above ground
Claude Neon Federal Company maintained signs on tall buildings. An employee repairing a neon sign moved across narrow supports and repositioned a ladder while working about 100 feet above the ground without a safety belt or other fall protection. OSHA originally cited the general duty clause, but…
M. K. Binkley Construction Company
OSHA did not prove a feasible roof fall-protection method
M. K. Binkley Construction employees installed roof decking near an edge with a possible fall of 15 to 20 feet and wore no fall-protection equipment. OSHA proposed safety belts and lanyards connected to lifelines attached to the walls or to a new frame around the roof perimeter. The Commission held…
Schiavone Construction Co.
Fall protection and cylinder items affirmed, air hose item vacated
Schiavone Construction was building an interstate highway when an employee worked on pile-driver leads without fall protection, about 14 feet above a steel platform and 20 feet above protruding steel piles. The Commission upheld the serious personal protective equipment citation because the…
Marion Stephens, d/b/a Chapman & Stephens Company
General duty violation affirmed for work near a power line
Chapman & Stephens grew citrus and used 20-foot steel sprinkler pipes in a grove crossed by a low 7,200-volt power line. While three workers removed a bent pipe near the line, the pipe contacted it, killing one employee, rendering another unconscious, and knocking the supervisor to the ground. The…
Seaward Construction Co., Inc.
Excavation item vacated because moving-ground danger was not proved
Seaward Construction had two employees working in a sewer excavation that contained compacted backfill, some tidal water, limited shoring, concrete-topped banks, and nearby road traffic. OSHA argued that the lack of specified slopes or shoring, together with the site conditions, established a…
Roanoke Iron & Bridge Works, Inc.
Column-sliding violation affirmed, other fall-protection charges rejected
Roanoke Iron & Bridge Works was erecting a five-story office building when employees regularly slid down vertical steel columns instead of using an available ladder for the final 50 feet to the ground. The Commission rejected the judge's greater-hazard defense because the record did not show that…
L. C. Anderson & Sons, Inc.
Serious fall-protection violation affirmed under the proper standard
Two L. C. Anderson employees tightened bolts while sitting on a horizontal I-beam about 20 feet above the ground without safety belts, lifelines, or similar protection. The Commission upheld the personal protective equipment violation because fall protection was feasible, the employer knew belts…
Martin E. Keller Roofing Co., Inc.
Flat-roof fall-protection citation vacated
Three Martin E. Keller Roofing employees worked near the edge of a flat roof about 17 feet above the ground, beside a parapet measured at 14 to 18 inches. The judge found that perimeter guardrails would obstruct the roofing and flashing work at the edge. He also accepted unrebutted testimony that…
Derr Construction Company
Safety-belt citation affirmed, five other steel-erection items vacated
Derr Construction was erecting a high-rise steel frame when an ironworker worked on the top edge of a girder on the 13th floor without using an available safety belt. The Commission upheld the serious personal protective equipment violation because the worker faced an obvious fall hazard and the…
William Phillips Company
Commission declines to disturb an ALJ fall-protection ruling
William Phillips Company is a small seasonal contractor doing tuckpointing, caulking, and building waterproofing. During a December 1975 inspection at a Cleveland shopping center, an OSHA compliance officer found one of the company's employees kneeling on a parapet about 30 feet above a concrete…
The Lane Construction Corporation
Safety-belt violation affirmed, net and guardrail items vacated
Two Lane Construction employees stood and leaned over a bridge parapet more than 25 feet above a lower deck while attaching scaffold members to a mobile stripping wagon without personal fall protection. The judge affirmed the personal protective equipment violation because safety belts were…
B & B Insulation, Inc.
Safety-belt citation affirmed for pipe-rack work 21 feet above ground
B & B Insulation employees installed insulation while straddling and walking along spaced pipes about 21 feet above the ground and nine feet above energized trolley lines. A foreman's trailing stainless-steel wire contacted the power lines, causing his death and causing another employee to lose…
Burk Construction Corporation
Repeated flying-form fall violations affirmed with penalty reduced to $1,000
Burk Construction performed concrete-form work with employees placing jacks near an unguarded perimeter on the seventeenth level of a building. Employees, including a foreman, worked within about two feet of the edge without safety belts, lifelines, nets, or equivalent fall protection. The judge…
Southwestern Roofing & Sheet Metal Co.
Fuel-container item affirmed and roof citation vacated
Southwestern Roofing used an unapproved five-gallon gasoline can to refuel a tar-pot engine even though an approved container was available nearby. The judge affirmed that item without penalty because the can lacked a self-closing lid and flame-arresting screen, creating a preventable fire or…
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.