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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The Hartford Roofing Co., Inc.
Commission combines six roof exposures into one repeat violation and assesses $35,000
The Hartford Roofing Co., Inc. had six employees performing built-up roofing work near an inadequately protected edge of a 39-foot-high department-store roof. The company used neither warning lines nor a motion-stopping safety system, and its safety monitor was inadequate for the large roof and…
J. R. Construction
Commission affirms dismissal after employer ignored answer and show-cause requirements
J. R. Construction timely contested OSHA citations arising from a Kansas City, Missouri construction site but did not answer the Secretary's formal complaint. It then failed to respond to the chief judge's show-cause order, which had been mailed to an address the company itself listed. After…
Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting Co.
Scaffold access deemed de minimis, missing rails and toeboards cost $700
Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting Co. erected a tubular welded-frame scaffold about 15 feet high for two employees welding at a White Plains, New York worksite. The employees climbed down scaffold rungs spaced 18 to 24 inches apart instead of using a nearby ladder. Chief Judge Irving Sommer found…
Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc.
Four trench items vacated, cave-in protection violation affirmed for $3,750
Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc. sent an employee to weld a leaking gas line in an L-shaped excavation dug by an independent contractor in Columbus, Ohio. The Secretary withdrew one citation item before the hearing. Administrative Law Judge Michael H. Schoenfeld vacated the competent-person item because…
Murphy Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a Murphy Brothers Exposition
Failed Giant Wheel rope and missing sling inspections yield $10,000
Murphy Brothers Exposition was setting up a 90-foot carnival Ferris wheel in Dallas when a damaged wire rope failed, causing moving wheel components to kill two employees and seriously injure a third employee, whose leg was partially amputated. Administrative Law Judge Stanley M. Schwartz found…
First American Construction Corporation
Dissolved company remains bound by uncontested citations and penalties
OSHA issued one serious citation and one other citation after inspecting First American Construction Corporation's Brooklyn worksite. The Secretary moved to dismiss the company's notice of contest because it was filed late. At the hearing, the company's president testified that the corporation was…
Prince Carpentry, Inc.
Misfiled citation did not excuse late notice of contest
Prince Carpentry, Inc. received a serious OSHA citation and proposed penalty on November 21, 1994, making its notice of contest due by December 14. The company did not contest until January 31, 1995, after a delinquency letter prompted a search that located the citation in the wrong office folder…
Fibres South, Inc.
Unguarded yarn rollers and missing lockout review produce $4,800
Fibres South, Inc. manufactured synthetic fiber on a line that included a seven-roller Godet machine with exposed in-running nip points. The manufacturer had supplied an interlocked guard, but the company stopped using it in 1986 and required operators to cut fiber wraps from moving rollers with…
M & W Roofing Co., Inc.
Scaffold access, guardrail, and hard-hat violations affirmed for $1,100
M & W Roofing Co., Inc. worked from scaffold platforms at a Walgreens construction site in Wisconsin. An employee reached the scaffold by climbing its cross members because no ladder or equivalent safe access was provided. The 12-foot and 18-foot platforms also lacked required guardrails and…
Whitacre Engineering Co.
Unguarded runway and exposed rebar produce $4,125
Whitacre Engineering Co. installed reinforcing steel for a steel-mill foundation project in Mansfield, Ohio. Employees crossed a 28-inch-wide aluminum runway that lacked a guardrail on one side, and Whitacre neither asked the general contractor to correct it nor used alternative protection. The…
Career Training Institute
Missed employee-training deadlines produce $10,900 in failure-to-abate penalties
Career Training Institute operated vocational programs in Orlando, including medical-assistance and phlebotomy training. After an initial OSHA citation became final, the school did not provide bloodborne-pathogen training to its exposed employees by the abatement date and did not give…
Empire Steel, Inc.
Commission approves $1,000 settlement with employee-leasing company
The underlying case arose after an employee fell through an opening during a Texas school re-roofing project and sustained fatal injuries. The administrative law judge had substituted employee-leasing company Corporate Compensation and Safety, Inc. for the originally cited Empire Steel, Inc. and…
P. A. Landers, Incorporated
Four excavation violations affirmed for $10,300, willful charge reduced to serious
P. A. Landers, Incorporated was constructing a manhole in an excavation about 8.5 feet deep beside a roadway carrying substantial traffic. Three employees worked without hard hats, bricks and concrete blocks were stored within two feet of the edge, and the access ladder extended only one foot above…
Waste Management of Palm Beach, Division of Waste Management, Inc., of Florida
Commission affirms hazard from unauthorized reinforcement of trash-loader boom
Waste Management of Palm Beach operated garbage trucks fitted with hydraulic trash loaders whose flexible booms were designed to absorb operating shock. After one boom cracked, the company welded steel plates along it without evidence of manufacturer approval. The trash-loader assembly later…
Williams Construction Co., Inc.
Final power-line citation withdrawn and $80,000 fee settlement approved
The case arose from citations issued after an accident at Williams Construction Co., Inc.'s Montana electrical power-line construction worksite. After other items had been withdrawn, the only remaining item alleged that an employee approached energized parts too closely with a conductive object…
Eyelematic Manufacturing Company, Inc.
Power-press, chain, cylinder, and electrical items produce $5,300
Eyelematic Manufacturing Company, Inc. made small metal parts at its Connecticut facility. Administrative Law Judge Richard DeBenedetto vacated a flammable-container item because the Secretary's amendment shifted the theory from approved container design to liquid transfer without evidence fitting…
Moishe's Moving Systems, Inc.
Manager's vacation did not excuse late notice of contest
Moishe's Moving Systems, Inc. received a serious OSHA citation on December 8, 1992, making its notice of contest due December 30. The company filed its contest in January after the building manager returned from vacation and found the citation in his mail. Chief Judge Irving Sommer noted that 30 to…
NI Industries, Riverbank Army Ammunitions Plant
Inadequate sump ventilation produces one serious $3,500 violation
NI Industries employees cleaned sludge from a permit-required sump about 25 feet deep at an ammunition plant. The sump had limited natural ventilation, and employees used a gasoline chain saw that repeatedly caused the atmospheric monitor's alarm to sound. NI initially provided no forced…
Louisiana-Pacific Company
Sander kickback and repeat lockout failures produce $158,500
Louisiana-Pacific Company operated a particle-board plant where a jammed wide-belt sander ejected a board that struck an employee and caused severe internal injuries. The judge found that kickback was a recognized woodworking hazard and that manufacturer-recommended anti-kickback fingers would…
Richard A. Pulaski Construction Company, Inc.
Default set aside because employer lacked a chance to show cause
The administrative law judge dismissed Richard A. Pulaski Construction Company, Inc.'s notice of contest after the company missed an agreed telephone prehearing conference. The record showed that Pulaski had previously filed a witness statement, promptly contacted the Commission after the…
Ingalls Shipbuilding, Inc.
Consolidated citations settle for $8,850
The Commission approved a complete settlement of three consolidated Ingalls Shipbuilding, Inc. dockets. Seven electrical-panel cabinet items were reclassified as other-than-serious with $600 total penalties, and Ingalls agreed to keep panel doors closed and replace missing blanks. A…
Gold Coin Ironworks
Late contest dismissed after employer also missed the hearing
Gold Coin Ironworks received a serious citation and proposed penalty on October 7, 1994, making its notice of contest due October 31. It requested an informal conference but did not file a contest until November 23. The employer also failed to appear at the scheduled hearing, arriving after the…
Cherry Hill Stairs, Inc., t/a Harmonson Stairs
Repeated refusal to guard table saw results in $12,000 willful penalty
Cherry Hill Stairs, trading as Harmonson Stairs, operated a custom stair-building shop in New Jersey. Employees used a hand-fed circular ripsaw without the required hood, spreader, and anti-kickback fingers, even though the guarding unit was nearby. The company argued that guards were infeasible…
Valley Construction Company
$750 awarded for unjustified material-safety-data-sheet item
Valley Construction Company sought attorney, consultant, and other expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act after settling OSHA citations arising from an employee's fatal electrocution. The settlement withdrew three items, reclassified two, and reduced two penalties. The judge found Valley to…
Megawest Financial, Inc.
Apartment-office violence citation vacated for lack of recognized hazard proof
Megawest Financial, Inc. managed a large Florida apartment complex whose office staff experienced repeated tenant threats and several physical attacks. Employees requested daytime security, and another tenant attacked an assistant manager while an OSHA compliance officer was investigating the…
GEM Industrial, Inc.
Reviewed steel tag-line item withdrawn by settlement
GEM Industrial, Inc. was a structural-steel subcontractor on an Ohio building project. The administrative law judge had affirmed a serious tag-line violation for crane loads during steel shakeout and assessed $1,300, along with a separate $1,625 electrical violation. Review was directed on the…
Ozark Wood Gallery
Default remains on merits, but employee-status jurisdiction requires a hearing
The chief judge dismissed Ozark Wood Gallery's notice of contest because the business did not file an answer or respond to a show-cause order. On review, Ozark asserted that it had never had any employees, while the Secretary's complaint alleged approximately six employees at the time of…
VSH Restaurant Corporation, d/b/a Vestal Steakhouse & Seafood Grill
Citation vacated after inspection evidence suppressed
Local fire and building officials inspected Vestal Steakhouse & Seafood Grill and gave the restaurant ten days to correct numerous electrical and fire-code conditions. The restaurant began repairs and had completed most listed items when OSHA inspected five days before the local deadline, using the…
Alcorn Well Service, Inc., a Division of Dawson Well Service, Inc.
Wrench-hazard item vacated, hazard-communication items yield $1,050
An Alcorn Well Service, Inc. crew was fishing broken sucker rods from a Texas well when two workers used pipe wrenches to turn a rod and move an overshot through a tight spot. The rod unexpectedly torqued, one worker lost control of his wrench, and the wrench struck another employee in the head…
Amalgamated Sugar Company
Beet receiving station held subject to general-industry standards
Amalgamated Sugar Company operated an Idaho station that received sugar beets from private growers after harvest, then cleaned, conveyed, and stored them for sugar production. The company argued that its station was an agricultural operation exempt from the cited general-industry rules…
DCS Sanitation Management, Inc.
Willful lockout violations affirmed after fatal cleaning incident
DCS Sanitation Management cleaned operating meat-processing equipment at an IBP plant in Nebraska. OSHA cited five willful lockout/tagout violations after an employee was killed while cleaning a running loin saddle table. Administrative Law Judge James H. Barkley found that supervisors knew…
Boston Towing and Transportation Co.
Marine-access citations vacated for lack of fair notice
Boston Towing operated a marine terminal in Quincy, Massachusetts, where employees sometimes used a ladder between a pier and a barge at extreme low tide. OSHA investigated after a weekend watchman was found in the water near a ladder, although no one witnessed how he fell. The Secretary withdrew…
Pro-Drive, Inc.
Four commercial-diving safety items affirmed
Pro-Drive, Inc. performed a commercial dive to seal an underwater valve at a power plant in Illinois. The diver died after completing the repair, and the pathology and coroner report attributed the death to asphyxia caused by malfunctioning diving equipment. Administrative Law Judge Sidney J…
CEI West Roofing Co., Inc.
Hard-hat and traffic-sign items affirmed
CEI West Roofing Co., Inc. was cited at a Colorado roofing project where employees unloaded materials near traffic and worked on an unguarded roof. Administrative Law Judge James H. Barkley affirmed the hard-hat item because employee statements and the crew's conduct showed a practice that CEI's…
Stein, Inc.
Crane inspection and power-line clearance items affirmed
Stein provided a crane and crane operator for installation of a truck scale at an Ohio steel-mill site. A ground worker employed by the scale contractor was electrocuted when the crane boom contacted a 13,000-volt power line. The judge found that Stein remained an employer responsible for its…
LaForge & Budd Construction Co., Inc.
Two items affirmed by stipulation after remand
OSHA cited LaForge & Budd Construction Co., Inc. after inspecting an Oklahoma construction project. The Commission reversed an earlier ruling that had suppressed the inspection evidence and remanded the case for a hearing on the merits. The parties then stipulated that a nylon-sling item would be…
Baker Concrete Constr. Co.
Scaffold-access citation vacated for lack of fair notice
Baker Concrete employees climbed formwork to reach a partially dismantled scaffold at a shopping-mall construction site. An administrative law judge affirmed a serious citation for failing to provide a ladder or equivalent safe access and assessed $2,500. The Commission reversed because three OSHA…
General Motors Corporation, Delco Chassis Division
Lockout citations vacated
General Motors employees serviced automated manufacturing equipment without locking out its energy sources, relying instead on interlocked gates, emergency stops, and machine controls. The Commission held that the lockout/tagout standard applied only when unexpected energization, startup, or…
RGM Construction Company
Four bridge-safety items affirmed and two vacated
RGM Construction Company was widening a Texas bridge when OSHA cited fall-protection and water-safety conditions. The Commission affirmed a serious fall-protection item because tying a lanyard to an unsecured work platform could pull the platform down with a falling employee. It also affirmed items…
S.A. Healy Co.
Double-jeopardy defense rejected and penalties remanded
S.A. Healy Co. was the tunneling contractor on a Milwaukee sewer project where a methane explosion killed three employees. OSHA issued 68 willful citation items under its instance-by-instance policy, and 49 of those items covered conduct for which the company was also criminally convicted and fined…
ConAgra, Inc.
Joint motion ends Commission review
OSHA cited ConAgra after an employee at a Buffalo grain elevator was seriously injured when a rail-car puller's wire cable snapped. The underlying judge affirmed a general-duty-clause violation as serious, affirmed stair and platform guarding violations, and vacated a lockout…
John H. Quinlan, d/b/a Quinlan Enterprises
Crane and fall-protection items affirmed
Quinlan Enterprises was erecting steel for a Georgia retail building when OSHA observed employees installing roof decking more than 36 feet above the ground without fall protection. The Commission affirmed the serious fall-protection item because the steel-erection rules did not displace the…
Well Solutions, Inc., Rig No. 30
Blowout-preventer and training violations affirmed
A Well Solutions crew was changing a pump at a horizontal oil well in south Texas when a blowout and fire killed two employees and seriously injured two others. The Commission found that the well-servicing industry recognized the need for a blowout preventer under the conditions at this relatively…
DiGioia Brothers Excavating, Inc.
Trench protection and inspection violations affirmed
DiGioia Brothers Excavating installed residential water and sewer lines in an excavation more than eight feet deep. The Commission found that most contemporaneous soil tests showed compressive strength below the threshold for Type A soil, while tests performed months later at nearby locations did…
Zenith Tech, Inc.
Bridge-opening fall citation vacated
Zenith Tech performed bridge-demolition work on a Milwaukee freeway project. OSHA alleged that employees cutting rebar, attaching lifting chains, and cleaning the deck came too close to an unguarded opening about 15 feet above the ground. The compliance officer estimated distances from about half a…
Donley's Inc.
Parking-garage guardrail violation affirmed
Donley's Inc. reconstructed a parking garage by removing floor sections and replacing them with formwork and metal pans. Employees worked beside an opening to the floor 12 feet below, where the company used sawhorses as warnings instead of standard guardrails. The Commission reversed the judge's…
CECO Corp.
Ladder and scaffold violations affirmed after fatal fall
A CECO laborer suffered a fatal 18-foot fall from an improvised stairwell scaffold made from a narrow aluminum plank, a straight ladder, and closed stepladders. The Commission admitted evidence that the judge had excluded, but found that the employee's prior statements did not undermine his…
Baker Tank Co./Altech, a Div. of Justiss Oil
Tank-entry training and electrical violations affirmed
Baker Tank employees entered an emptied crude-oil storage tank to cut apart an internal aluminum roof using electric saws. Residual sludge contained volatile solvent, and an explosion after the crew reentered the tank killed three employees. The Commission found that Baker had not adequately…
American Bridge Company
Lead-exposure washing-facilities violation affirmed
American Bridge Company rehabilitated two Ohio bridges by cutting and burning steel coated with lead-based paint. OSHA monitoring found one employee's full-shift airborne lead exposure was about 3.8 times the applicable limit, and wipe samples found lead on his hand, shoe, hard hat, and lunch box…
Otis Elevator Company
Extension-cord GFCI violation affirmed
Otis Elevator Company was installing an elevator in a building addition and powered tools and a portable lamp through an extension cord connected to the original building's permanent wiring. The Commission held that the cord's receptacle outlet still required ground-fault protection under the…
Utility Systems, Inc.
Willful utility-location violation affirmed after gas explosion
Utility Systems excavated for water service lines on a New Jersey street after snow and earlier trenching had obscured gas-line markings. Its superintendent requested a new markout but began digging before the gas company responded, despite uncertainty about service to one house. The backhoe struck…
Valdak Corp.
Willful machine-guarding penalty increased
Valdak Corporation used an industrial centrifuge extractor to dry towels at its North Dakota car wash. A 15-year-old employee suffered a severed arm, which was later reattached, after reaching into the extractor while its internal drum was spinning. The Commission held that Valdak willfully…
Marshall Durbin
Hearing-protection violations affirmed, one reduced to nonserious
Marshall Durbin operated a chicken-processing plant in Jasper, Alabama. The judge found that two employees exposed above the permissible noise limit were not required to wear hearing protection, affirming that item as serious. A second item was affirmed but reduced to other-than-serious because…
Joseph Bueme
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA cited Joseph Bueme for failing to maintain a written hazard communication program and failing to provide employees with required chemical-hazard information and training. Bueme received the citation on February 11, 1994, but filed the notice of contest after the 15-working-day deadline. He…
Daniel O'Connell's Sons, Inc.
Lifesaving-skiff citation settled for $5,000
Daniel O'Connell's Sons, Inc. performed bridge work over the Connecticut River and was cited for failing to make a lifesaving skiff immediately available. The administrative law judge had affirmed the item as willful with a $35,000 penalty. While the case was under Commission review, the parties…
Central Operating Co.-Philip Sporn
First-aid crew bloodborne-pathogen items affirmed as nonserious
Central Operating Company designated 82 employees at its Philip Sporn plant as members of a first-aid crew. The company argued that rendering aid was voluntary, so the crew members were good samaritans rather than employees with occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens. The judge rejected that…
Kunz Construction Co., Inc.
Four serious excavation-safety violations affirmed
Kunz Construction Co., Inc. was inspected while working near the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, Texas. OSHA found a foreman without a hard hat, an access ladder that did not extend three feet above the excavation, an unguarded plank used as a crossing, and employees in an excavation that was neither…
Tri-City Electrical Contractors, Inc.
Compressed-gas and extension-cord violations affirmed
Tri-City Electrical Contractors, Inc. was completing electrical work at a Builder's Square store in Fort Myers, Florida. OSHA found an unsecured and uncapped carbon-dioxide cylinder connected to an air gun, and an energized extension cord that was repeatedly run over by material-handling equipment…
Franklin E. Skepton
Twelve construction-safety violations affirmed
Franklin E. Skepton was the general contractor for a high-school addition in Pennsylvania. OSHA cited conditions including unguarded floor and wall openings, missing hard hats, unsafe compressed-gas handling, unprotected electrical equipment, unstable and unguarded scaffolds, improper gasoline…
Thor Construction
Fall-protection and tagline violations affirmed
Thor Construction was cited for nine serious violations during a structural-steel construction project. Before the hearing, the parties settled seven items by vacating three, reclassifying four as other than serious, and agreeing to $3,000 in penalties. The judge found that several employees worked…
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.