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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Hardy Construction Company
Trench-side item affirmed and bank item vacated
Hardy Construction employees worked in a compact-soil trench that was more than six feet deep, about 34 inches wide, and insufficiently sloped above the five-foot level. The judge found a nonserious violation of the compact-soil trench standard but no substantial probability of death or serious…
Matthews & Fritts, Inc.
$1,000 failure-to-abate penalty vacated
Matthews & Fritts received a trench citation requiring abatement on the same day the citation was received. OSHA reinspected the next morning while company officials were discussing corrective procedures and proposed an additional $1,000 failure-to-abate penalty. The Commission held that an…
Corporacion Raymond, S.A.
Serious citation settlement affirmed
Corporacion Raymond received one serious citation with an $800 proposed penalty and several nonserious citations carrying $240 in penalties. It contested only the serious citation, then entered a settlement withdrawing that contest and consenting to a final order affirming the citation and penalty…
Dorfman Construction Company, Inc.
Amended settlement affirmed after union service
Dorfman Construction Company settled serious and nonserious citation items carrying $980 in proposed penalties. The agreement reclassified the § 1926.652(c) charge as nonserious and reduced its penalty from $700 to $175. It also withdrew one crane-related item and its $85 penalty, while the…
Intercounty Construction Corp.
Willful trench violation affirmed and penalty cut to $5,000
Intercounty Construction was installing a sewer line in a trench about 40 feet long and 10 feet deep. The trench was not properly sloped or shored, and the company intermittently removed its portable steel trench shield even after the foreman was told that employees were unprotected without it. The…
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.