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.
Franciscus Roofing & Siding, Inc.
Roof and ladder violations result in $2,400 penalty
An OSHA inspector observed a Franciscus worker about 20 feet above the ground on a steep residential roof without conventional fall protection. The judge found that the worker was an employee under the OSH Act even though the company called him a subcontractor. Franciscus did not produce the safety…
Aquatek Systems
Balcony fall-protection citation vacated
Aquatek waterproofed apartment balconies, and its foreman directed two employees to finish work on unguarded balconies without fall protection. The administrative law judge imputed the foreman's knowledge to Aquatek, rejected the company's safety-program evidence, and affirmed a $1,500 citation…
M.D. Roofing & Siding, L.L.C.
Residential roofing fall-protection violation affirmed
M.D. Roofing & Siding employees performed residential roofing work on two Philadelphia roofs without conventional fall protection. OSHA observed one employee working 22 feet above the ground and another working 30 feet above the ground near unprotected roof edges. The employer argued that it used a…
Earl F. Douglass Roofing Co.
Roofing fall-protection citation vacated for lack of employer knowledge
OSHA found three Earl F. Douglass Roofing employees working more than 21 feet above the ground without tying off their fall-protection harnesses. The foreman knew the crew was still working after the roof anchors had been removed, but the employer argued that the conduct violated its established…
Earl F. Douglass Roofing Co.
Roofing fall-protection citation vacated for lack of employer knowledge
OSHA found three Earl F. Douglass Roofing employees working more than 21 feet above the ground without tying off their fall-protection harnesses. The foreman knew the crew was still working after the roof anchors had been removed, but the employer argued that the conduct violated its established…
Latite Roofing & Sheet Metal Co., Inc.
Roof fall-protection instance vacated for lack of fair notice
Latite Roofing used an alternative fall-protection plan with a warning line and safety monitor while employees worked on a residential roof. The Commission considered OSHA's long history of advice, withdrawn citations, settlements, a prior Latite victory involving a materially similar roof, and…
Williams Insulation
Residential fall-protection citation affirmed
OSHA observed a Williams Insulation employee working on a residential roof about 40 feet above the ground without fall protection. The employee straddled one chimney, walked across the roof carrying plywood, and covered another chimney while his harness remained on the ground. Williams argued that…
Staz-On Roofing, Inc.
Partial attorney-fee award granted
OSHA withdrew a fall-hazard training item against Staz-On Roofing at the start of the merits hearing, and the employer sought attorney fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act. The judge found Staz-On eligible and a prevailing party on the withdrawn item. He held that the Secretary…
CWJ Contracting, Inc.
Repeat residential fall-protection violation affirmed
CWJ Contracting framed apartment buildings, and its superintendent stood on narrow joists of an undecked second-floor balcony about 10 feet above a concrete patio without fall protection. The judge held that CWJ's controlled-access-zone plan did not apply because the superintendent was discussing…
Staz-On Roofing
Residential fall-protection violation affirmed
Staz-On Roofing employees, including a foreman, worked on a residential roof more than 30 feet above the ground without remaining tied off. The company argued that workers had to unhook to retrieve rolls of felt and that conventional or additional protection was infeasible or created a greater…
Designs Unlimited Contractors
Residential roofing violations affirmed
Designs Unlimited Contractors was finishing a residential reroofing job when OSHA observed three workers more than 25 feet above the ground without fall protection. The judge found that the company had not provided competent-person inspections, had removed its fall-protection system before…
Stahl Roofing, Inc.
Roofing safety citations vacated for lack of employer knowledge
OSHA cited Stahl Roofing after employees at two residential worksites lacked required fall protection and, at one site, eye protection. The Commission found that Stahl had appropriate work rules, training, site inspections, and progressive discipline, and that the employees' prior safety records…
Summit Contractors, Inc.
Subcontractor fall-hazard citations vacated for lack of knowledge
OSHA cited Summit, the general contractor for a large apartment project, for several fall hazards affecting subcontractor employees. The judge held that Summit's broad contractual and practical authority made it a controlling employer under the multi-employer worksite doctrine. She vacated the…
Van Tassel Construction Corporation
Roof fall-protection violation affirmed
Van Tassel Construction employees installed decorative wood trusses on a shopping-center roof in Ohio. The judge vacated the allegation that the company's competent person failed to make frequent and regular inspections because the standard did not require an inspection immediately upon arriving at…
Bob Anderson Builders, Inc.
Willful roof-fall violation affirmed
Bob Anderson Builders framed a multi-story retirement facility where a newly hired carpenter slipped on a frosted roof and fell 32 to 34 feet through a gap in an incomplete slide guard. The judge found that employees also accessed the roof by climbing trusses instead of a ladder, but classified…
Double "A" Industries, Inc.
Roofing subcontractor's safety citations affirmed under the multi-employer worksite rule
Double "A" Industries is a small south Florida shell contractor that took a $38,000 contract to build a guardhouse and subcontracted the roofing labor out. An OSHA officer inspecting a nearby site watched roof workers for about 40 minutes without fall protection or hard hats and improperly using…
Kevin Dallas Roofing
Default judgment after the employer stopped participating, all citations affirmed
Kevin Dallas Roofing, a sole proprietor in Ohio, was inspected by OSHA and issued a serious citation and an other-than-serious citation totaling $1,650 in proposed penalties. The employer contested the inspection by letter, but then did not participate in the scheduled pre-hearing conference call…
M & M Roofing, Inc.
A willful residential fall-protection citation cut to serious after a bench trial
M & M Roofing is a residential roofing contractor. OSHA inspected a Mason, Ohio jobsite in August 2000 and issued two citations: a serious citation for not having a program of frequent, regular jobsite inspections by a competent person, and a willful citation for not protecting workers from falls…
Field & Associates, Inc.
Commission affirms the fall-protection citation but throws out the material-storage citation for lack of exposure
Field & Associates is a roofing contractor. In August 1997, two of its employees were distributing bundles of shingles along the peak of a new church roof in Tipp City, Ohio, with no fall protection when two OSHA compliance officers passing by stopped to inspect. OSHA issued five serious citation…
Stevens Construction Corp.
Roofing citation vacated, fall-protection plan supervision violation affirmed
Stevens Construction was installing roof trusses and sheathing on a wood-frame apartment project in Racine, Wisconsin. OSHA cited the company for unprotected residential roofing work and for failing to place its alternative fall-protection plan under a competent person's supervision. The judge…
Sun Roofing, and its successors
Six-month delay after a penalty demand defeats request to excuse late contest
Sun Roofing operated a roofing business in Appleton, Wisconsin, and OSHA cited it for a serious residential fall-protection violation. The company received the citation on August 31, 1999, which made September 22 the deadline to contest it. Sun Roofing did not submit a notice of contest until May…
David Weekley Homes
General contractor citation vacated for insufficient proof and lack of knowledge
David Weekley Homes was the general contractor for residential construction at the Horizon Pointe development in Colorado. OSHA cited Weekley for nine conditions grouped into six willful items involving its safety program, hard hats, scaffold support, fall protection, guardrails, training, and…
Homes by Bill Simms, Inc.
All seven items vacated because the builder did not control its subcontractors
Homes by Bill Simms was a residential general contractor in Springboro, Ohio, that built custom homes using subcontractors. During an August 1999 inspection of three of its home sites, OSHA saw subcontractor employees committing scaffold and fall protection violations and issued Simms a seven-item…
Guam Top Builders, Inc.
Roof fall and short ladder-rail items affirmed
Guam Top Builders repaired typhoon-damaged condominium roofs about 18 feet above the ground. Employees worked near the roof edge without conventional fall protection while the person identified as safety monitor operated a forklift across the street, outside the required visual and speaking range…
Thomas Mlodzinski, d/b/a TNT Roofing
Unprotected hotel roof work affirmed
OSHA observed three TNT Roofing workers, including the owner, installing shingles on low- and steep-slope portions of a hotel roof 40 to 50 feet above the ground without fall protection. The crew had fall-arrest equipment and had used it earlier, but stopped because they felt secure without it…
Commercial Wall, Inc.
Willful fall violation affirmed at one motel site
Commercial Wall, Inc. supplied framing crews for motel projects in Galesburg and Knoxville, Illinois. At the Galesburg site, the judge found Commercial was the employer because it held the framing contract, paid the workers, covered workers' compensation, and retained the right to control the work…
S & J Haas Construction, Inc.
Repeat roofing fall-protection item affirmed, training item vacated
S & J Haas Construction, Inc. is a small family-owned residential contractor that was building a home in O'Fallon, Illinois. An OSHA compliance officer driving by saw three workers offloading shingles on the roof without fall protection and, staying on the public street, photographed the scene and…
Triple J Construction
Repeat residential fall-protection violations affirmed
Triple J Construction had three workers removing shingles and tar paper from a steep residential roof about 12 feet above the ground without required fall protection. The company also lacked a training program for workers exposed to fall hazards and had previously received final citations for the…
McCarson's Quality Covering
Roofing safety violations affirmed
McCarson's Quality Covering used employees to replace a residential roof near an energized service line. OSHA found that the ladder-jack scaffold was about 12 inches from the unguarded power line, employees had no conventional fall protection on the steep roof, and the employer lacked adequate…
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.