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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Engineered Construction Systems, Inc.
General contractor liable for subcontractor fall hazards
Engineered Construction Systems was the general contractor for a quick-lube building project in Colorado. OSHA observed masonry employees working on scaffolds more than 10 feet high without guardrails and workers near unguarded floor pits almost eight feet deep. The judge held the general…
Processing Technologies, Inc.
Uncontested citations affirmed with penalties cut for good faith
Processing Technologies, Inc. was inspected by OSHA in August 1997 and issued a three-item serious citation plus one other-than-serious item. The company did not dispute that the violations happened; it only challenged the penalty amounts. The violations involved flammable materials stored within…
Walter Jensen, d/b/a S & W Construction
Willful steep-roof fall citations affirmed, one power-line item vacated
Walter Jensen, doing business as S & W Construction, ran residential roofing crews in New Hampshire. OSHA inspected two of his steep-roof jobsites about five weeks apart, both under the same foreman, and found roofers working high above the ground with no guardrails, nets, or personal fall arrest…
Geo. Gradel Company
Training violation affirmed after a backhoe punctured a gas line
Geo. Gradel Company was an excavation contractor replacing a sewer line during a road-widening project in Ohio. A backhoe operator punctured an eight-inch high-pressure gas line where the sewer crossed it. The judge affirmed a serious training violation because Gradel had only told workers to be…
Anderson Columbia Co., Inc.
General contractor liable for subcontractor trench hazards
Anderson Columbia Co., Inc. was the general contractor on a Florida storm-drain project where a subcontractor performed the excavation work. OSHA found spoil and heavy equipment too close to the trench edge, no cave-in protection in an 18-foot-deep trench, inadequate access for workers to leave the…
R.W. Dunteman Co.
General contractor willfully ignored a subcontractor's trench hazard
R.W. Dunteman Co. was the general contractor on an Illinois road and underground construction project, while a subcontractor performed the below-grade work. Employees of the subcontractor worked in a trench more than six feet deep without adequate sloping, shoring, or a trench box. The judge found…
DDC Interiors, Inc.
Late contest denied after the citation was overlooked
DDC Interiors received an OSHA citation on November 5, 1997, but did not file its notice of contest until December 29, after the 15-working-day deadline. The company's vice-president explained that she and her assistant had been absent, the citation was overlooked on her desk, and a death in her…
Atlantic Casting & Engineering Corporation
Late notice of contest dismissed, citation becomes final
Atlantic Casting & Engineering Corporation received an OSHA citation by certified mail on July 30, 1997. Under the law, an employer has 15 working days to file a written notice of contest, or the citation and penalties become final automatically. Atlantic's deadline was August 20, 1997, but it did…
Windham Construction Corp.
Fall-protection and aerial-lift violations affirmed
Windham Construction Corporation was repairing structural steel beneath the Gowanus Expressway in New York. An OSHA officer saw an employee ride an aerial lift without tying off, climb onto the basket railing, and work between a shoring tower and a beam without fall protection. The judge credited…
Universal Construction Company, Inc.
General contractor liable for aerial-lift hazards
Universal Construction Company, Inc. was the general contractor for a Missouri bank project. OSHA observed a subcontractor's employee working from an aerial lift without a body belt and attached lanyard, then climbing from the lift basket onto a nearby roof. Universal's own employees were not…
C & D European Stucco and Stone, Inc.
Scaffold and inspection items vacated
C & D European Stucco and Stone, Inc. installed insulation and stucco from scaffolding on a six-story motel project in Georgia. OSHA alleged that employees worked on unguarded scaffold areas and that a competent person had not made regular site inspections. The judge credited the employer's…
S & F Concrete Contractors, Inc.
Fall citation affirmed with a reduced penalty
S & F Concrete Contractors, Inc. performed concrete formwork for a hotel parking garage in the Boston area. OSHA cited the company for failing to protect employees working on concrete beams near open sides and ends. The judge found that one open side lacked required midrail protection and that one…
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…
Stone-Circle Underground, Inc.
Trackhoe bucket violation affirmed, spoil-pile and cave-in items vacated
Stone-Circle Underground builds underground drainage fields in the Fort Lauderdale area. During an August 1997 inspection of a French drain job in a bank parking lot, OSHA issued three excavation citations: employees working under a trackhoe bucket, a spoil pile stacked at the trench edge, and a…
McKie Ford
Willful conveyor hazard affirmed with a $20,000 penalty
McKie Ford operated an automobile dealership where employees routinely rode a vertical reciprocating conveyor designed only for freight. An employee was killed when his head was caught between the second-floor landing and the ceiling of the unguarded conveyor. The judge found the hazard recognized…
Brandenburg Industrial Services Company
Four demolition safety violations affirmed
Brandenburg Industrial Services Company performed demolition work at the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. OSHA cited an inadequately protected eight-foot excavation, an uncovered floor opening, a worn shackle, and excessively worn chain links on magnet excavators. The judge found…
Medical Construction Group
General contractor held responsible for subcontractor's fall hazard
Medical Construction Group (MCG) was the general contractor building an addition at a medical center in Twin Falls, Idaho. During an April 1997 inspection, an OSHA compliance officer saw ironworkers from a subcontractor, R&L Construction, connecting steel about 29 to 30 feet up without any fall…
Milo Construction Corporation
Twelve violations affirmed with reduced classifications
Milo Construction Corporation was the prime contractor on a residential construction project in Guam. After Milo failed to comply with discovery orders, the judge deemed admitted the cited conditions, employee exposure, and Milo's ability to control or correct the hazards. The violations covered…
Louis A. Dierzen d/b/a Dierzen Welding & Machine Company, Dierzen Machine Company, and Dierzen Trailer Corporation
Failure-to-abate and repeat spray-area violations affirmed by default
Dierzen ran a welding and machine shop in Newark, Illinois with about 12 employees. In March 1997, OSHA conducted a follow-up inspection to check whether earlier, uncontested violations had been fixed. The inspector found that explosion-proof electrical equipment for the paint spray area had been…
W. G. Kees Properties, Inc.
Eight construction safety items affirmed
W. G. Kees Properties, Inc. was cited for safety conditions at a construction site. The remaining allegations involved employees working without fall protection on a steep roof and second level, unsecured and insufficiently extended access ladders, and a stairway without required rail protection…
L & B Products, Corp.
Fifty manufacturing safety items affirmed
L & B Products, Corp. manufactured furniture at a facility in Hudson, New York. OSHA issued 51 serious and other-than-serious items after inspecting eight departments. The allegations covered elevated work areas, exit signs, flammable liquids, fire and lockout training, machine and power-press…
Macedos Construction Company, Inc.
Serious construction citation resolved by approved settlement
Macedos Construction was inspected at a construction site in Dover, New Jersey in October 1996. OSHA issued a serious citation alleging violations of five construction standards covering fall protection, concrete and masonry work, stairways, and ladders. Macedos contested the citation, and the case…
Sentrale Contracting Corp.
Repeat trench cave-in and spoil-pile violations affirmed
Sentrale Contracting was doing utility excavation at a conference center site in Armonk, New York. During a September 1996 inspection, an OSHA compliance officer found an employee working in a trench area that measured about 6.5 feet deep, with walls sloped far steeper than the 45 degrees allowed…
Milo Construction Corporation
Nine construction violations affirmed
Milo Construction Corporation was the prime contractor for construction at Sirena Plaza in Agana, Guam. After Milo failed to comply with discovery orders, the cited violations, their classifications, and Milo's knowledge were deemed admitted. The judge held Milo responsible for hazards involving…
Scandia Packaging Machinery Company
Late notice of contest dismissed, citation stands
Scandia Packaging Machinery Company received an OSHA citation on December 20, 1996, giving it until January 14, 1997 to file a notice of contest. The company did not object until April 3, 1997, when it wrote asking for an informal conference, so its contest was months late and the citation had…
Carmen Paliotta Contracting Co.
Settlement approved after hearing
Carmen Paliotta Contracting Co. performed construction and demolition work. OSHA issued one citation alleging three serious violations and another alleging three willful violations, with $158,900 in proposed penalties. After a three-day hearing, the parties reported that they had reached a written…
Lewis Mechanical & Iron Works, Inc.
Willful fall violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Lewis Mechanical & Iron Works, Inc. installed crane rails while employees walked steel beams more than 30 feet above the ground without tying off. The judge held that installing the crane rails was not steel erection because the structural beams were already in place, so the cited general…
Olympia Drywall Company
Stairway and landing guardrail violations affirmed, $400 penalty
Olympia Drywall was a sheetrock subcontractor at a construction site in Austin, Texas. During an October 1996 inspection, OSHA found that the stairways its workers used to reach the second and third floors of a building lacked stairrails on one or both sides and had completely unguarded landings…
Weight Watchers Gourmet Food Co., Inc.
Amended order approves settlement
Weight Watchers Gourmet Food Co., Inc. operated a food preparation, packaging, and sales business. OSHA issued one citation alleging four serious violations with $5,625 in proposed penalties. The parties reached a written settlement at the hearing, and the judge approved it under the Commission's…
C.W. Sprenger
Tag-line violation affirmed after one item settled
C.W. Sprenger erected a multi-story building in Maplewood, New Jersey. The parties settled item 1, and the judge approved that agreement without reproducing its terms. The remaining item alleged that a steel beam was hoisted near two connectors working about 30 feet high without a tag line to…
L.M.A. Construction Corp.
Fire-protection violations affirmed after fatal store fire
L.M.A. Construction Corp. was the general contractor renovating a church building that also contained retail space in Manhattan. OSHA inspected after an arsonist set fire to a clothing store in the building and blocked its exit; seven store employees died from smoke inhalation. The building's…
Malouf Construction Corporation
Excavation inspection citation vacated
Malouf Construction Corporation was the general contractor for a large office complex in Clinton, Mississippi. A plumbing subcontractor dug a six-foot excavation and allowed employees to enter without an inspection by a competent person. The judge found that the inspection requirement was violated…
Seabed Harvesting, Inc.
Diving violations affirmed with reduced penalties
Seabed Harvesting, Inc. conducted commercial geoduck diving from the vessel Lauri Ann near Bainbridge Island, Washington. The tender recorded bottom time but did not maintain a written depth-time profile, although the divers used computers that stored depth and decompression information. The judge…
Virginia International Terminals, Inc.
Forklift seat-belt citation dismissed
Virginia International Terminals, Inc. did not require operators to use seat belts on forklifts equipped with them. OSHA cited the company under the general duty clause after an operator drove a forklift off a loading ramp, was ejected or jumped, and later died from her injuries. The judge found…
Johnson Masonry, Inc.
Fees allowed after cited regulation was deleted
Johnson Masonry, Inc. sought fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act after OSHA withdrew a citation. An earlier order denied the application, and the company asked the judge to reopen the record or award costs incurred after the cited regulation was deleted on August 12, 1996. The…
Concrete Metal Forms, Inc.
Formwork violations affirmed after deck collapse
Concrete Metal Forms, Inc. designed and erected formwork for a new county jail in Alabama. During the third-level concrete pour, the deck collapsed and 22 employees were injured. CMF argued that the general contractor caused the collapse by directing an uneven pour despite CMF's warning. The judge…
Dietrich Industries, Inc.
Machine-guarding citation dismissed
A Dietrich Industries employee injured his finger while adjusting a stacker table as the steel-processing machine continued to run. Company procedure required shutting the machine off or placing it in a noncycling mode before making the adjustment. The employee said production needs sometimes…
Lukens Steel Company
Commission vacates PPE citation after withdrawal
The Secretary notified the Commission that he was withdrawing the only remaining item, a serious citation alleging a personal-protective-equipment violation. The notice stated that no other issues remained in the case. The Commission treated the notice as a motion and vacated the citation item and…
Ormet Primary Aluminum Corporation
Commission vacates withdrawn PPE item
The Secretary notified the Commission that he was withdrawing the only remaining item, an other-than-serious citation alleging a personal-protective-equipment violation. The notice stated that no other issues remained. The Commission treated the notice as a motion and vacated the citation item and…
John McCarty, d/b/a Intertribal Trade
Diving citations vacated for lack of employment relationship
Intertribal Trade was a fish-buying business that helped members of the Makah tribe obtain equipment and training for commercial sea-urchin diving. OSHA investigated after a diver died while working from a vessel owned by John McCarty. Applying common-law agency factors, the judge found that…
A & K Construction Co., Inc.
Unprotected trench draws an affirmed serious cave-in citation
A & K Construction Co., Inc. was installing a water system in Island Lake, Illinois. On May 27, 1997, an OSHA compliance officer saw an A & K employee working as the bottom man in an open trench about 7.5 feet deep with no sloping, shoring, or trench box. OSHA cited a serious violation of the…
Micron Construction, Inc.
Controlling contractor cleared of a subcontractor's fall violations for lack of knowledge
Micron Construction, Inc. was the construction manager on a Meridian, Idaho project. A January 1997 OSHA inspection caught employees of its steel subcontractor, Hansen & Rice, in three fall-protection lapses: one worker tied his lanyard to another worker's retractable lifeline about 40 feet up, one…
Omni Source Corp.
Two contested items vacated after a fatal shredder accident, rest resolved by settlement
Omni Source Corp. runs a metals reclamation yard in Toledo, Ohio, where it operates a large Texas Shredder that shreds automobiles. During routine maintenance on March 19, 1996, the roughly 5,600-pound movable section of the machine's safety cage came off its rails and fell into the mill, injuring…
Macy's East, Inc.; Abraham & Straus, Inc.; Stern's Department Stores, Inc.
Twenty-nine exit-aisle instances rejected
OSHA cited three department-store companies for 32 instances in which merchandise or display tables allegedly obstructed exit aisles. The judge had previously rejected the Secretary's position that the cited standard required 60-inch or 44-inch aisle clearance. Because OSHA did not calculate…
Action Cleaning Corporation
Unplanked bilge openings on a Navy ship draw an affirmed serious fall citation
Action Cleaning Corporation did shipboard painting-prep work aboard the USS Vandergrift, cleaning the bilge area after deck plates were removed. A February 1997 OSHA inspection found employees walking on the exposed structural grid to reach ladders, with openings between the members and no planking…
Parsons Company, Inc.
Two guarding violations reduced from willful to serious
Parsons Company, Inc. used a metal shear with a finger guard that could move out of alignment and a press brake with no point-of-operation guard. An employee reached beneath the shear guard after scrap slipped and lost the tips of six fingers when he accidentally activated the machine. The judge…
Glenco Construction Services, Inc.
Steel erector held to general fall-protection rules, three items affirmed
Glenco Construction Services, Inc. was a steel-erection subcontractor at a Bloomsburg University library project in Pennsylvania. During a November 1996 inspection, OSHA found that cables at the tops of access ladders forced workers to step over them, that a stairwell opening had slack guard cables…
Sea-Jet Trucking Corp.
Five failure-to-abate items affirmed at a New Jersey warehouse, $101,200 in penalties
Sea-Jet Trucking Corp. ran an import-export warehouse in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where most workers were Spanish-speaking. After a 1994 inspection, OSHA cited the company for numerous violations, which it agreed to abate by April 1995 in a signed settlement. When OSHA did not receive an abatement…
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…
Fabricated Metal Products, Inc.
Commission requires reasonably predictable machine exposure
Fabricated Metal Products used automated presses with unguarded points of operation and horizontal camshafts. The Secretary argued that employees could contact the moving parts if they slipped or fell near the machines. The Commission held that exposure must be reasonably predictable through…
Tracy Bakery Production, Inc.
Commission restores and approves settlement
The Secretary asked the Commission to review a withdrawal filed after the area office and Tracy Bakery Production, Inc. had already settled the case. The Regional Solicitor's Office had been unaware of that settlement when it filed the withdrawal. Tracy did not oppose the request. The Commission…
Innovative Laminating Corp.
Commission corrects wrong-case settlement filing
The Secretary issued Innovative Laminating Corp. a failure-to-abate citation and later filed an unsigned settlement followed by a notice of withdrawal. A signed settlement for a different employer, Innovative Plastics, Inc., was then mistakenly filed under this docket number and approved by an…
American Sterilizer Company
Commission vacates training item and affirms remaining violations
An American Sterilizer Company technician died from carbon monoxide exposure while cleaning medical sterilization equipment with a glass-bead blasting machine. Contrary to company rules, he connected his supplied-air respirator to the gasoline compressor powering the blaster instead of a separate…
Trine Construction Corp.
Repeat unprotected-excavation citation affirmed at a water main project
Trine Construction Corp. was the contractor on a 3-mile water main project for the City of Wheeling, Illinois. During a January 1997 inspection, an OSHA compliance officer found an excavation 8 to 9 feet deep with essentially vertical walls and no cave-in protection. Witnesses said a Trine employee…
Continental Roof Systems, Inc.
Commission affirms serious classification for scaffold violations
Continental Roof Systems repaired the roof and chimneys of the Franklin D. Roosevelt home for the National Park Service. The judge affirmed 16 violations but reduced two scaffold-guardrail items from willful to serious, assessing $32,100 in total penalties. The Secretary sought review only of the…
Southeast Steel Erectors, Inc.
Contest dismissed after company stopped responding
OSHA cited Southeast Steel Erectors, Inc. for an unguarded roof deck and a portable ladder that did not extend three feet above its landing. After filing a notice of contest, the company reported that it had dissolved and then stopped responding. It did not provide a current address or telephone…
Tireman's Tire Shop, Inc.
Unguarded repair pit and open breaker panels affirmed as serious
Tireman's Tire Shop, Inc. ran an auto tire and repair shop in New York. After an employee complaint, OSHA inspected in December 1996 and, while finding none of the complained-of conditions, cited two hazards in plain view. The first was a 40-foot-long, 5.5-foot-deep repair pit that was unguarded…
Williams & Sons Erectors, LLC
Fall protection and training violations affirmed
Williams & Sons Erectors performed steel erection at a three-story construction site in New York. OSHA observed one ironworker welding on a second-level beam and another sitting on a roof-level column without fall protection. The judge credited the compliance officer's testimony that the employees…
A.D. Willis Company, Inc.
Roofing fall-protection citation vacated for failure of proof
A.D. Willis Company, Inc. was doing roofing work on an HEB store in Midland, Texas. An OSHA compliance officer arriving around 9:15 a.m. saw and videotaped two Willis employees working at the edge of the roughly 30-foot-high roof with no visible fall protection. He did not go onto the roof until…
Union Tank Car Company
Commission rejects unexplained PPE payment interpretation
Union Tank Car Company required employees at its railcar repair facility to buy their own safety shoes and welding gloves while subsidizing metatarsal guards. OSHA cited the company on the theory that the word “provide” in the general PPE standard required employers to pay for the equipment. 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.