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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Data Electric Company, Inc.
Three items affirmed and one stairway item vacated
Data Electric was an electrical subcontractor on construction of a municipal services building in New York. It did not create or control the unguarded stairways and floor perimeters, but the Commission held that a noncontrolling subcontractor must take realistic measures to protect its own…
Elford, Inc.
Extinguisher and saw-switch items affirmed
Elford was remodeling a building when OSHA issued ten nonserious citation items. Two items were not contested and became final orders. Of the remaining items, the judge affirmed a fire-protection item because the extinguisher near a kerosene storage area had been discharged and was ineffective. The…
J. K. Butler Builders, Inc.
Fall-protection citation reinstated for rebar work
J. K. Butler Builders was the general contractor for a building addition in San Antonio, Texas. After a foreman left to obtain scaffold railings, employees continued tying reinforcing steel on an unguarded beam about 26 feet above the ground without safety belts or equivalent protection. The…
Nordman Roofing Co., Inc.
Amended flat-roof fall-protection citation affirmed
Nordman Roofing’s case came before the Commission on its own review order, but no party objected to the judge’s decision. The Commission declined to address the merits independently and left the judge’s ruling unchanged. Commissioner Moran’s dissent states that the judge found the originally cited…
Baxter Electric Company
Commission leaves four subcontractors' citation vacaturs in place
Baxter Electric Company, Wentz Plumbing and Heating, Tri Sales Associates, and H. H. Robertson Company were subcontractors on construction of the State Office Building in Lincoln, Nebraska. OSHA cited each for alleged fall, floor-opening, guardrail, toeboard, and hollow-pan stair hazards under…
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…
Dale Crampton Co.
Flat-roof guardrail citation vacated
Dale Crampton Company was reroofing a University of Arkansas building in Fayetteville. Three employees worked on an essentially flat roof about 27 feet above a concrete sidewalk, handling old roofing, new material, and hot asphalt near an 18-inch parapet. OSHA cited the lack of a standard railing…
Carr Erectors, Inc.
Steel-floor perimeter item affirmed and elevator-platform item vacated
Carr Erectors was performing steel erection on a high-rise building in Columbus, Ohio. On the thirteenth floor, employees accessed a temporary steel-and-rebar floor section with no perimeter protection next to a twelve-foot gap. The Commission held that the specific steel-erection perimeter rule…
Underhill Construction Corp. and DIC Concrete Corp., trading as DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Repeat serious perimeter-guarding violation affirmed
DIC-Underhill was cited after employees worked near unguarded edges on the fourth and fifth floors of a high-rise construction project. The judge found that perimeter guards sometimes had to be removed for specialized column work, but held the company responsible for completely removing the…
Yonkers Plate Glass, Inc.
Serious balcony fall hazard affirmed
Two Yonkers Plate Glass employees installed metal trim on an unguarded fourth-floor balcony about 40 feet above ground, working as close as three feet from the edge without belts or lifelines. The judge credited the compliance officer’s identification of the workers and imputed the foreman’s…
L. H. Sowles Company
Construction-site exposure citations affirmed
These consolidated cases involved three construction sites. At a North Dakota power plant, debris obstructed walkways and cutting waste fell through floor holes into an incompletely barricaded area; both nonserious items were affirmed, with a $45 penalty for housekeeping and none for falling…
Central Contracting Corporation
Roof-edge and air-shaft violations affirmed
At a hospital addition, a crane operator worked near the unguarded edge of an elevator-tower roof about 20 feet above a scaffold, and an unguarded air-shaft pit lay beside an employee walkway. The company conceded both violations but disputed their classification and penalties. The judge found the…
Union Steel Erectors, Inc.
Willful crane-riding and fall violations affirmed
OSHA observed Union Steel employees riding a crane hook, headache ball, and suspended steel loads 50 to 70 feet above the ground. The foreman knowingly allowed the practice for about a week, the general contractor had warned him it violated safety rules, and the crane operator knew it was…
Roof Engineering Corporation
Flat-roof guardrail citation vacated
Roof Engineering employees installed roofing material on an open-sided flat penthouse roof. The Commission affirmed vacation of the guardrail citation because, under its intervening Central City Roofing precedent adopting the Fifth Circuit’s Diamond Roofing reasoning, the open-sided-floor standard…
Rayco Construction Company, Inc.
Repeat guardrail and housekeeping violations affirmed
Rayco employees worked on unguarded second- and third-floor levels in cold, gusty weather with ice, snow, and water on the surfaces. Some came within inches of floor edges or worked on beams outside the floors, facing falls of 12 to 24 feet. The second floor also contained lumber with protruding…
Brown and Root, Inc.
Serious items settled and scaffold-screen citation vacated
Brown and Root settled serious allegations involving an inadequately slung boiler pipe that fell about 140 feet, an uncovered floor opening, an unguarded winch platform, and an unguarded runway at the steam-drum level. Those items were affirmed under the settlement with a total $1,000 penalty. The…
Crain Electric, Inc.
Eight construction items vacated for lack of exposure proof
Crain Electric was an electrical subcontractor on a large power-station construction project with many other contractors. OSHA cited temporary wiring conditions, floor openings, floor holes, and unguarded elevated floors and proposed penalties totaling $145. The compliance officer did not observe…
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…
Beldon Roofing & Remodeling Co.
Flat-roof guardrail citation vacated
Beldon Roofing was reroofing a flat-roofed building, and an employee filled and carried buckets of hot tar near an unguarded roof edge. OSHA cited the company under the open-sided floor and platform guardrail standard and proposed a $500 penalty. The judge initially affirmed the item as nonserious…
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…
Frank Briscoe Company, Inc.
Fall-protection item affirmed and ladder citation amended
Frank Briscoe employees worked near unguarded building edges, including one employee standing on a ladder beside the open third-floor perimeter without a tied-off safety belt. The Commission vacated the roof-edge citation under then-current precedent holding that § 1926.500(d)(1) did not apply to…
Circle Industries Corp.
Unguarded-floor citation reinstated
Circle Industries was a carpentry subcontractor on a New York City apartment project where floor perimeters lacked guardrails. Its employees worked within five feet of those edges while installing door bucks, although the compliance officer did not see them exposed during the inspection. The…
Champlin Petroleum Co.
Flat-roof citation vacated
A Champlin employee worked at the edge of a service-station roof while removing a sign without a safety line or safety belt. OSHA cited Champlin for a serious violation of the construction perimeter-guarding standard, and the judge affirmed that item. The Commission vacated the citation because its…
Sloan Roofing Company
Flat-roof guarding citation vacated
Sloan Roofing employees installed roofing material on a flat roof at a Michelin Tire facility in Edison, New Jersey. The roof was 24 feet above the ground, but the judge found that the employees stayed at least 40 feet from its edge and were not exposed to a perimeter fall hazard. OSHA alleged a…
Pierce Associates, Inc.
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Pierce Associates case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The release does not describe the workplace facts, other citation items, or penalty result. Commissioner Moran's dissent states that Citation Number 4 remained affirmed under the…
Decks, Inc. of Florida
Flat-roof guarding item vacated
OSHA cited Decks, Inc. of Florida for several items, including an allegation that it failed to install perimeter guarding on a flat roof. The Commission held that 29 C.F.R. § 1926.500(d)(1) did not apply to flat roofs. It therefore vacated Item 7 and its associated penalty. The Commission also…
A. Munder & Son, Inc. and Robert Catino, Inc.
Accessible hazards separated from remote conditions
A. Munder & Son was a sheet-metal subcontractor, and Robert Catino was a carpentry subcontractor, at a New York City building project. Both companies' employees passed near unsecured oxygen and acetylene cylinders that lacked valve caps, so the Commission affirmed the cylinder-storage violations…
Langer Roofing & Sheet Metal, Inc.
Flat-roof guarding citation vacated
OSHA cited Langer Roofing & Sheet Metal for allowing employees to work on an unguarded flat roof. The administrative law judge had vacated the citation on procedural grounds. During Commission review, the company moved to dismiss the review and vacate the citation because 29 C.F.R. § 1926.500(d)(1)…
National Roofing of Sioux City, Inc.
Flat-roof citation vacated, chain-guard item affirmed
National Roofing employees applied tar near the edge of a flat school roof about 13 feet above the next level without guardrails, lifelines, or other fall protection. The Commission vacated the repeated citation under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.500(d)(1) because that standard did not apply to flat roofs. It…
Hayden Electric Services, Inc.
Balcony-guarding citation reinstated with a $100 penalty
Hayden Electric was an electrical subcontractor working in a 19-story building under construction. An employee installed a light fixture on an unguarded 16th-floor balcony while working about five to seven feet from the open edge. The Commission held that the employee was within the fall-hazard…
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…
Vappi and Company, Inc.
Construction-manager safety items affirmed
Vappi served as construction manager for a new Faulkner Hospital building and coordinated numerous independent contractors. Although its employees performed no permanent construction, Vappi supplied carpenters for safety measures and temporary scaffolding, laborers for debris cleanup, and…
Vappi and Company, Inc.
Construction-manager safety items affirmed
Vappi served as construction manager for a new Faulkner Hospital building and coordinated numerous independent contractors. Although its employees performed no permanent construction, Vappi supplied carpenters for safety measures and temporary scaffolding, laborers for debris cleanup, and…
Enterprise Roofing & Sheet Metal Co.; Anning-Johnson Company; Frank Briscoe Company, Inc.; Tri-State Roofing & Sheet Metal Company, Inc.
Flat-roof guard citations vacated
Four employers were cited for failing to install perimeter guarding on flat roofs. Applying its Central City Roofing decision, the Commission held that section 1926.500(d)(1) did not apply to flat roofs and vacated the guard citations and their penalties in all four cases. Commissioner Cleary…
M. M. Schranz Roofing & Building Supply Co., Inc.
Flat-roof railing item vacated
M. M. Schranz Roofing was cited for failing to install standard railings on a flat roof where its employees worked. Applying its divided Central City Roofing decision, the Commission held that section 1926.500(d)(1) did not apply to the flat roof. It reversed the judge and vacated citation item 2…
Huber, Hunt & Nichols, Inc. and Blount Brothers Corporation, a Joint Venture
Superdome citations affirmed
The joint venture was general contractor for construction of the Louisiana Superdome, with about 350 employees and numerous subcontractors at the site. The Commission affirmed two serious citations and eighteen additional items covering perimeter and opening guards, personal protective equipment…
Carr Erectors, Inc.
Elevated-work citations vacated
Carr Erectors employees worked about 42 feet above the ground while constructing a cement bulk plant. The employer supplied safety belts and lines and instructed employees to use them, although two employees were observed without that protection. The Commission affirmed the judge's conclusion that…
David Neiss, d/b/a Neiss Engineering Company
Fall-hazard penalties reduced
Neiss Engineering was cited for 12 nonserious conditions at a concrete apartment-building project, including ladder defects, unguarded floor openings and platforms, housekeeping, unsecured gas cylinders, and other guarding issues. The judge affirmed the violations and adjusted the proposed…
Anning-Johnson Company
Multi-employer subcontractor defenses defined
Anning-Johnson was a drywall and ceiling subcontractor whose employees encountered unguarded floors and stairs, debris, and missing fire extinguishers at construction projects in Florida and Georgia. The company did not create or control the cited conditions and had complained to the general…
Grossman Steel & Aluminum Corporation
Known perimeter hazard required reasonable protective action
A Grossman Steel employee worked on the second floor of a school under construction, about 15 feet above the ground, where the building perimeter was completely unguarded. The general contractor was responsible for guardrails, and craft rules prevented Grossman from installing them, but Grossman…
Robert W. Setterlin & Sons Co.
Tenth-floor guardrail citation vacated
Setterlin employees installed masonry at an unguarded section of the tenth floor of a telephone building. The guardrails had been removed so cement blocks could be installed, and the record showed that the work could not be performed with standard rails in place. The Commission affirmed the judge's…
Zipco Construction Corp.
Guardrail and fire-extinguisher items affirmed
Zipco was building three two-story townhouses in Yonkers, New York. An employee carried lumber near an unguarded open-sided floor eight feet above the ground without fall protection, and the townhouses lacked the required fire extinguishers. Fire-protection equipment was available elsewhere at or…
Underhill Construction Corp., individually, and DIC Concrete Corp., individually and trading as DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Open-floor, saw, and ladder violations affirmed
DIC-Underhill performed structural concrete work on a high-rise building and garage complex. About 15 employees worked and moved within four feet of an unguarded second-floor perimeter approximately 13 feet above the ground. The Commission held that this showed actual exposure and that employee…
Warnel Corporation
Safety-belt violation affirmed after amendment
Two Warnel employees installed window frames at the edge of a third floor about 30 feet above the ground. They had to move outside the existing guardrail to perform the work, but they used no safety belts or other fall protection. The Commission held that a safety belt was not the structural…
DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Perimeter-guarding and housekeeping violations affirmed
DIC-Underhill performed structural concrete work on a New York City apartment building. The first and second floor edges were unguarded, with drops greater than six feet, and employees worked on both levels. The Commission held that the general perimeter-guarding standard applied to concrete…
Bechtel Power Corporation
Construction-manager safety violations affirmed
Bechtel managed construction of a Missouri power plant but did not perform craft labor. Its engineers, timekeepers, safety representatives, and other employees regularly worked throughout the construction site. The Commission held that this management and inspection work was directly tied to…
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…
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…
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…
Sletten Construction Co.
Bridge guardrail citation affirmed
Sletten Construction was excavating bridge piers and used a work bridge above water without guardrails. The Commission upheld the judge's finding, based on circumstantial evidence, that employees were exposed to the unguarded bridge and affirmed the repeated violation with a $340 penalty. It also…
Vincent Rizzo, d/b/a Vincent Rizzo Construction Co. or Masoncraft, Inc.
Citations dismissed for naming the wrong employer
OSHA issued three serious construction citations totaling $1,500 against Vincent Rizzo and a company that had not performed the cited work. The notice of contest promptly stated that Masoncraft, Inc. was the correct employer, but the Secretary continued prosecuting Rizzo individually rather than…
Underhill Construction Corp. & DIC Concrete Corp., d/b/a DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Serious 24th-floor fall hazard affirmed, penalty set at $650
DIC-Underhill was performing concrete-forming work on the 24th floor of a New York high-rise project. Eleven employees worked within two to three feet of an unguarded floor edge about 200 feet above ground, with no perimeter rails, safety nets, or personal protective equipment. The Commission…
A.I. Smith Electrical Contractors, Inc.
Contest dismissed after failure to answer
OSHA cited A.I. Smith Electrical Contractors for open-sided-floor and hoistway-entrance violations and proposed a $250 penalty. The company timely contested but did not answer the Secretary's complaint. It also did not respond to the judge's order to explain the missing answer, so the judge…
C.E.C. Electrical Company
Fall-protection and electrical citations affirmed
C.E.C. Electrical employees worked around untagged deenergized circuits, exposed live parts, unprotected cables, and unsecured switchboxes. Another employee lay on a 24-inch-wide walkway suspended about 70 feet above the floor and leaned out to weld without guardrails, a safety belt, or a lifeline…
Bob McCaslin Steel Erection Company
Related companies treated as one employer
Workers at an airport construction site were exposed to debris with protruding nails, unguarded floor holes, and unguarded elevated platforms. They were nominally employed by Bob McCaslin Anchor Company, while OSHA cited Bob McCaslin Steel Erection Company. The judge treated the two corporations as…
Layton Roofing Company, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail citation and $300 penalty affirmed
Layton Roofing employees worked on a flat concrete roof more than 16 feet above the ground without perimeter guardrails. An employee had fallen from the roof and died the day before OSHA's inspection. The judge held that the open-sided-floor standard did not apply to flat roofs, but the Commission…
Edward M. Ream, Inc.
Flat-roof fall citation vacated
Employees installed roofing on a flat, solid-surfaced roof more than 100 feet above the ground without perimeter railings, nets, or personal fall protection. An employee had previously fallen from the roof and died. The judge held that the cited safety-net and personal-protective-equipment…
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…
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…
Everhart Steel Construction Company, Inc.
Roof-edge and grounding citations affirmed
An Everhart Steel employee worked at the edge of a flat roof thirty-two feet above the ground, leaning over the side to pass siding and other material to workers on a scaffold. The roof had no perimeter guard or other protective device. The Commission held that the open-sided-floor standard applied…
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.