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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Electrical Contractor Associates, Inc.
Shaft and roof-edge guarding citations affirmed
Electrical Contractor Associates was an electrical subcontractor at a building project in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Its employees worked near a mechanical shaft that lacked toeboards and was partly unguarded, and near an unguarded roof edge 48 feet above the ground. The judge affirmed two nonserious…
Port Chester Electric Construction Company, Incorporated
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Port Chester Electric case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The attached judge's decision involved two electrical employees working near an unguarded elevator shaft opening with a 65- to 70-foot drop, and an employee using acetylene…
The Ashton Company, Inc.
Steel-erection railing rule controlled temporary floors
The Ashton Company was the general contractor building a multistory county courthouse in Tucson, Arizona. During the steel-erection stage, employees installed plywood decking and poured concrete on partially completed second and third floors. OSHA cited Ashton under the general open-sided-floor…
Alcap Electrical Corp.
Subcontractor citations affirmed for employee exposure
Alcap Electrical was an electrical subcontractor at a building project where employees encountered unguarded floor openings, unguarded stairs, unsecured gas cylinders, and other construction hazards. Alcap argued that it did not create or control the hazardous conditions. The Commission held that a…
Julius Nasso Concrete Corp.
Construction-site fire, floor-opening, and crane citations affirmed
Julius Nasso was a concrete contractor on a New York project involving three twelve-story buildings. OSHA cited inadequate firefighting equipment, unguarded floor openings, and an unbarricaded crane swing radius. The judge found that the available water equipment did not cover the required floor…
Wilmorite, Inc.
Construction citations withdrawn with prejudice
Wilmorite was adding six floors to an existing building in Syracuse, New York. OSHA cited an unguarded tenth-floor perimeter, a short ladder extension, unguarded floor and ladderway openings, and construction debris. The judge vacated the citations after finding, among other things, that the…
Julius Nasso Concrete Corporation and Beach Concrete Company, Inc., a Joint Venture, d/b/a Nasso Beach Concrete
Citation vacated for lack of reasonable promptness
Nasso Beach Concrete was the concrete subcontractor on a high-rise apartment project. An employee installing perimeter guardrail protection on the sixteenth floor fell and died, and OSHA investigated the next day. The area director decided on December 26, 1972, to issue a citation concerning fall…
Laster and Fingeret, Inc.
Penalties imposed for eight admitted construction violations
Laster and Fingeret was the general contractor at a building project and admitted three serious and five nonserious construction violations. The cited conditions included missing stair and perimeter railings, unguarded floor openings, fire-extinguisher and first-aid deficiencies, unsecured gas…
A. B. Hall, d/b/a Dixie Roofing & Metal Co.
Roof citations reduced to nonserious
Dixie Roofing employees installed roofing around 12 unguarded openings and along unguarded edges about 15 to 16 feet above lower surfaces. They also used an unsecured wooden ladder several times each day to reach the roof. The judge affirmed all three violations but reduced the roof-opening and…
Julius Nasso Concrete Corp.
Flat-roof perimeter allegation remanded
Julius Nasso Concrete Corporation performed concrete work on a 17-story building where OSHA cited unguarded floor perimeters and open shaftways. The judge affirmed serious violations involving open-sided floors from the 13th through 16th floors and unguarded openings on the 13th floor, assessing…
W. B. Meredith II, Inc.
One contested item affirmed and others vacated
W. B. Meredith II was a general construction contractor building a five-story reinforced concrete building. OSHA issued three serious and fourteen non-serious citation items with $1,750 in proposed penalties. The Commission upheld the judge's vacatur of the contested electrical-box, guardrail…
Humphreys & Harding, Inc.
Serious fall-hazard citations vacated for lack of exposure
Humphreys & Harding managed construction of a seventeen-story building and had contract responsibility for guardrails and debris removal. OSHA cited unguarded floor perimeters, material-hoist entrances, and elevator shafts as serious violations. The Commission affirmed vacatur because the Secretary…
Hoffman Electric Co.
Floor-opening and perimeter citations affirmed
Hoffman Electric performed electrical construction in buildings with unguarded floor openings and open-sided floors. Its employees used elevator-shaft ladderways and worked where materials were moved along the outside of the building. The judge held that the subcontractor remained responsible for…
Plastering, Inc.
Serious roof-opening violation and $650 affirmed
Plastering employees installed draft stops beneath a convention-center roof about sixty feet above the floor. Four employees worked on the roof and stepped over an unguarded opening created by removal of a large steel deck plate, and the company knew the openings existed. Another worker who was not…
J.E. Roupp & Company, Inc. and Denver Dry Wall Company
Drywall fall violations upheld
J.E. Roupp was the general contractor for an apartment-building project, and Denver Dry Wall was a subcontractor. A Denver Dry Wall employee was killed after stored railings fell and pushed him from an unguarded fourth-floor balcony, and another employee used a stairway without handrails or…
Advance Air Conditioning, Inc.
Roof-opening violation affirmed under specific standard
Advance Air Conditioning was installing ductwork at the Las Vegas Convention Center while employees worked on a roof with unguarded openings 48 to 51 feet above ground. One employee fell through a 2-by-30-foot opening located within inches of his work area after the opening had remained unguarded…
Armor Elevator Co., Inc.
Floor-opening violation affirmed and ladder item vacated
Armor Elevator was installing elevators in a New York building where elevator-shaft openings were not protected by compliant railings or secured covers. The judge affirmed a serious floor-opening violation and assessed $500, while vacating a separate item alleging that a wooden ladder was used at…
Hersman Construction Co.
Three guarding violations affirmed and failure-to-abate penalties rejected
Hersman Construction received citations covering fall protection, floor and stair guarding, debris disposal, citation posting, and housekeeping at a building project. The judge found that OSHA proved only two open-sided-floor guarding violations and one inadequately covered floor opening. He…
Genco, Inc.
Construction citation vacated after inspection violations
OSHA issued Genco a 13-item non-serious citation after inspecting its construction work at Honolulu International Airport. The judge vacated the citation because the compliance officer began the inspection before presenting credentials to the owner, operator, or agent in charge as required by the…
Atlantic Concrete, Inc.
Mixed ruling on floor opening and crane citations
Atlantic Concrete was cited for an unguarded floor opening and several recordkeeping, posting, first-aid, and crane-related conditions. The parties stipulated that several non-serious items were unsupported, inapplicable, or abandoned. The judge vacated those items, affirmed two crane violations…
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.