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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Gardner Fire Protection
Trench egress and cave-in items affirmed, daily-inspection item vacated
Gardner Fire Protection, a small pro se contractor, was installing sewer and fire-hydrant lines at a KOA campground in Seminole, Florida. A December 1992 OSHA inspection came the day after a broken water line flooded the excavation overnight and eroded one wall. OSHA cited four serious…
Jewell Painting, Inc.
Lead-paint bridge job, serious items cut to nonserious, water-cooler general-duty item vacated
Jewell Painting removed lead paint from a bridge over the Androscoggin River in Gilead, Maine, then repainted it. After an August 1992 OSHA inspection of the cleanup phase, the agency issued a serious citation and an other-than-serious citation covering nonpotable-water labeling, lead-dust exposure…
McDonald Masonry
Four scaffold-safety items affirmed as serious, $5,500
McDonald Masonry did masonry work at a jobsite in De Soto, Texas, where OSHA inspected in July 1993 and issued a serious citation. The company contested four scaffold-related items but its owner did not appear at the June 1994 hearing, so Administrative Law Judge Stanley M. Schwartz proceeded on…
Beall Construction, Inc., d/b/a Tiger Manufacturing
Settlement resolves two consolidated cases, $1,000 penalty
Beall Construction, Inc., doing business as Tiger Manufacturing in Dallas, Texas, faced OSHA citations in two separate cases covering welding, respirator, flammable-liquid, spray-finishing, and electrical safety standards. At a June 28, 1994 hearing, the parties used a short settlement discussion…
Gustafson Construction Corporation
Trench cave-in violation affirmed as serious, $1,200
Gustafson Construction Corporation was installing water main and sewer lines in a subdivision in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. OSHA inspected in May 1993 and cited the company for several items. Gustafson withdrew its challenge to all but one: a serious trench cave-in item requiring an adequate protective…
Luis A. Ayala Colon Sucrs., Inc.
Repeat safety-shoe violation at a Puerto Rico pier affirmed, $320
Luis A. Ayala Colon Sucrs., Inc. was a stevedoring company unloading a vessel at the Ponce Municipal Pier in Puerto Rico. During a May 1993 inspection, an OSHA compliance officer saw two stevedores working on the pier apron, close to trucks and cargo slings, without safety shoes. The company…
County Concrete Corp.
Wheel-chocking rule applied to concrete-mixing truck
OSHA inspected after an unoccupied County Concrete mixing truck rolled backward down a ramp and struck two employees, killing one. The company argued that the truck was governed only by the motor-vehicle section, which did not require wheel chocks, and not by the cited general equipment rule. The…
S.G. Loewendick & Sons, Inc.
Suspended-backhoe operation held willful
S.G. Loewendick suspended a seven-ton backhoe and its operator from a crane roughly 70 to 80 feet above the ground to demolish bridge piers. The Commission held that the backhoe was a load, not a personnel platform, so the operator was prohibited from riding it under the incorporated crane-safety…
Andrew Catapano Enterprises, Inc.
Willful trench violation affirmed and penalty increased
Andrew Catapano Enterprises allowed an employee to work in an unprotected trench dug in unstable or soft material in New York. The Commission upheld the judge's factual and credibility findings and affirmed the violation as willful. It rejected the company's notice argument because the Secretary's…
Norwich Laboratories, Inc.
Citations affirmed after employer stopped defending, $3,300
Norwich Laboratories, based in Amherst, Massachusetts, was inspected by OSHA between January and February 1993 after a complaint. In March 1993 the company received a serious citation with five items (a proposed $600 penalty on each, $3,000 total) and one "other" item ($300). The company contested…
Niemand Industries, Inc.
Talc citations and $2,800 penalty vacated after court remand
OSHA cited Niemand Industries for employee talc exposure, use of unapproved dust masks, and failure to use feasible controls. The Eleventh Circuit reversed the Commission's earlier finding because OSHA had measured talc exposure with a technique not provided in Table Z-3. The Commission concluded…
Harris Masonry, Inc.
EAJA fee award reduced by settlement
Harris Masonry had received an attorney-fee award after prevailing in its OSHA case. The Secretary petitioned for review of the hourly rate used in that award, and the parties then settled the Equal Access to Justice Act dispute. The Secretary withdrew the petition, and Harris agreed that its…
United Sheet Metal, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed, citation affirmed as issued
United Sheet Metal received an OSHA citation in January 1994. Under the OSH Act, an employer has 15 working days after receiving a citation to file a notice of contest, which gave the company until mid-February. It filed late, and the Secretary moved to dismiss the contest as untimely. The company…
Pit-Stop, Inc. (Uniroyal Pitstop)
Unguarded service pit affirmed as a serious violation, $100
Pit-Stop, Inc., operating as Uniroyal Pitstop in Midwest City, Oklahoma, ran an automotive shop where workers used floor pits about 3 feet wide, 5 feet deep, and 10 feet long to reach the underside of vehicles for oil changes and grease jobs. OSHA cited the shop after an inspection found several of…
New England Roofing and Sheet Metal Co.
Roof fall-protection citations affirmed, $2,500
New England Roofing and Sheet Metal Co. was doing built-up roofing on a five-story building in New Haven, Connecticut. An OSHA compliance officer driving by looked up, saw workers at the edge of the roughly 60-foot-high roof, and went up to inspect. He found employees working near the unprotected…
Jeanette M. Gould, d/b/a Gould Publications
Exit violations affirmed and poster item vacated
Gould Publications operated a law-book publishing facility with a basement pressroom containing large quantities of paper, ink, and flammable cleaners. The Commission found that a locked door intended as an exit could delay employees escaping a fire even though other routes were available. It also…
Elmont Glass Company, Inc.
Settlement approved, aerial-lift items affirmed at $1,200
Elmont Glass Company, a glazing contractor based on Staten Island, New York, was inspected by OSHA and issued two citations in September 1993. The serious citation alleged failure to conduct regular worksite inspections and two aerial-lift hazards (workers not standing firmly on the basket floor…
Island ADC, Inc.
Four conceded serious violations affirmed, full $3,125 penalty upheld
Island ADC was a construction subcontractor working at a New York City job site. After OSHA inspections in early 1993, the company received one citation with four serious items: an ungrounded electric cutter, a five-foot scaffold without guardrails, unlocked scaffold casters, and a stairway missing…
McNally Construction and Tunneling Co.
Tunnel standard preempts general electrical rule
McNally was constructing part of a Cleveland sewer tunnel in shale where methane could be encountered. OSHA alleged that the tunnel's lighting equipment and wiring were not intrinsically safe under the general construction electrical standard for hazardous locations. The Commission found that the…
K M & M, a Joint Venture
General electrical citation preempted by tunnel standard
K M & M was constructing a sewer tunnel in Cleveland shale, a formation known to contain combustible methane. OSHA alleged that lighting and other electrical equipment in the tunnel was not approved as intrinsically safe under the general construction electrical standard for hazardous locations…
Patterson Drilling Company, Inc.
Bloodborne-pathogen citations vacated for an oil-field drilling crew
Patterson Drilling Company ran a horizontal drilling rig at a site south of Gonzales, Texas. OSHA inspected after a February 1993 accident in which falling equipment caused a fatal crushing injury to a worker. The agency issued a serious citation with eight items and an "other" citation with two…
Interstate Erectors, Inc.
Two willful fall-protection citations affirmed against a steel erector
Interstate Erectors was a small steel erection company putting up skeleton steel for a building in Idaho Falls, Idaho. During a February 1993 inspection, an OSHA compliance officer photographed and videotaped ironworkers moving across beams 42 feet up without being tied off, both on exterior beams…
Dream Set Fashion, Inc.
$5,500 penalty affirmed for six serious violations
Dream Set Fashion manufactured women's apparel in New York City and contested only the $5,500 penalty for six serious violations. The conditions involved a covered exit sign, unguarded fan blades, an unguarded rotating shaft, an unguarded sewing-machine pulley, missing grounding pins, and an open…
Conie Construction, Inc.
Willful excavation violation affirmed with $21,000 penalty
Three Conie Construction employees worked in an excavation about 20 to 21 feet deep, with hard clay above solid rock. The Commission found that the excavation was too narrow at the top to provide the slope required for Type A soil. Conie's foreman knew the excavation standard but relied on his own…
American Bridge/Lashcon, J.V.
Fall protection and cylinder-storage violations affirmed
American Bridge/Lashcon employees repeatedly crossed a 13-inch-wide beam 28 feet above the ground while wearing safety belts that were not tied off. The Commission held that protection was required for this discrete crossing task even though employees tied off while performing other work. It also…
Hackney, Inc.
General PPE rule requires safety belts for crane fall hazards
Hackney manufactured carbon steel flanges at a Mississippi plant where maintenance employees regularly worked on an overhead crane and trolley about 33 feet above the ground. Some work areas lacked guardrails, and employees did not use safety belts even though the company had belts available and…
The Ruhlin Company
Bridge fall-protection and inspection items vacated, unguarded rebar affirmed
Ruhlin Company was the general contractor building the South Avenue bridge in Youngstown, Ohio. After a 1993 inspection, OSHA cited Ruhlin for three items tied to the work of its steel subcontractor: no fall protection for ironworkers walking the girders, a failure to run frequent and regular…
Marco Electronics Sales & Service
Locked exit and blocked fire extinguisher affirmed, penalties reduced
Marco Electronics Sales & Service repairs and sells electronic equipment in Corpus Christi, Texas. After a February 1993 inspection, OSHA cited the shop for a marked exit door that was locked, a fire extinguisher mounted low and blocked by a rolling work table and a TV being repaired, and two…
Tropical Brands Packing Corp.
Late notice of contest dismissed, citations stand
Tropical Brands Packing Corp., a New Jersey company, received two OSHA citations with a proposed penalty on June 1, 1993. An employer has 15 working days after receiving a citation to file a written notice of contest. The company received the citations on June 4, 1993 but did not respond until an…
McCain Foods, Inc.
Willful asbestos violations and $165,000 in penalties affirmed
McCain Foods operated a food-processing plant in Easton, Maine, while a major renovation project removed old piping and other material containing asbestos. The judge found that management knew asbestos was present, misled an OSHA inspector about the work, failed to train or protect employees, and…
Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.
Settlement approved over intervener's objections
Southwestern Bell and the Secretary submitted a settlement agreement, and the Communications Workers of America local serving as the authorized employee representative did not object. Robert Krueger, an intervener who apparently filed the complaint leading to the inspection, submitted several…
Cisneros Packing Co., Inc.
$2,550 assessed for stair, exit, lockout, and posting violations
Cisneros Packing processed pork skins at a Texas plant and contested only the proposed penalties, not the underlying violations. The remaining penalized conditions involved a nonconforming kettle stairway, a boarded and obstructed exit, cleaning an energized slicer without a lockout program, and…
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.
Repeated overhead-crane violations affirmed with $50,000 penalty
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel operated overhead crane no. 26 at its Yorkville, Ohio facility. A switch box in the crane cab had lacked a cover for years, exposing energized electrical parts near the operator despite repeated complaints to supervisors. A securing pin was also missing from a heavy cable…
National Engineering & Contracting Co.
Serious gasoline-labeling violation affirmed
A foreman placed an unlabeled gasoline container on the open back of a company pickup truck at a bridge construction site. Cold weather and gasoline overspray had prevented a label from sticking, and the foreman left the container while moving around the worksite. The Commission found employee…
D & J Manufacturing Inc.
Four repeat hazard-communication violations affirmed
D & J Manufacturing makes custom printed advertising specialties and novelties in Toledo, Ohio, using inks, solvents, adhesives, and pigments. OSHA had cited the company in 1992 for hazard-communication failures, and those citations became final. A February 1993 follow-up inspection found the same…
P.J. Lodola & Sons, Inc.
Stairway violations affirmed serious, outlet downgraded, drill item vacated
P.J. Lodola & Sons was the electrical subcontractor on a warehouse project for Lego in Enfield, Connecticut. A 1992 OSHA inspection led to a serious citation for an uncovered electrical outlet and for trailer stairs with uneven risers and missing rails, plus a nonserious citation covering…
National Engineering and Contracting, Inc.
Bridge fall-protection violations affirmed
National was the general contractor and Tri-State its steel-erection subcontractor on rehabilitation of Cleveland's Main Avenue Bridge. A Tri-State foreman fell 80 feet and died when a deck pan dropped during a nonroutine operation; a second ironworker survived by grabbing a structural member. The…
Kohler Company
277 recordkeeping violations affirmed with $29,430 penalty
Kohler used a computerized injury log at its Wisconsin manufacturing plant but coded 277 recordable injuries as first-aid cases. Most errors resulted from failing to track later medical treatment, while others occurred because nurses or safety staff overlooked information already available. The…
Craig Mechanical, Inc.
Late contest denied despite unanswered calls to OSHA
OSHA issued Craig Mechanical one serious and several other-than-serious citations with $825 in proposed penalties. The owner called OSHA twice within the 15-working-day contest period, said he wanted the charges dismissed, and was told to wait for the area director, who never returned the calls. He…
Nelson Tree Services, Inc.
Tree-felling hazard violation affirmed after fatal incident
Nelson Tree Services cleared trees around utility lines at a worksite in Hanoverton, Ohio. A leaning tree fell prematurely while a Nelson employee passed through the work area, fatally injuring the employee. The judge found that the tree-care industry and Nelson's own safety manual recognized the…
T & S Utilities, Inc.
Training, ladder, hard-hat, and fatality-reporting violations affirmed
T & S Utilities installed sewage-pump-station lines in Fort Myers, Florida, and employees worked inside manholes at the site. The judge vacated a general duty clause allegation because a specific confined-space training standard covered the condition and the record did not show actual atmospheric…
G-UB-MK Constructors
Arsenic, asbestos, hazard-communication, and respirator items resolved
G-UB-MK repaired and modified boiler unit no. 5 at TVA's Colbert Fossil Plant in Alabama. Initial arsenic monitoring found ten of eleven sampled employees above the permissible exposure limit, but written notice was delayed and requested records were not promptly provided to OSHA or the site labor…
Pan Building Corporation
Settlement affirms nine violations and reduces the penalty
OSHA cited Pan Building Corporation for six serious and three other-than-serious violations and proposed $8,700 in penalties. The Secretary moved to dismiss the company's notice of contest as late, while Pan argued that OSHA personnel had misled it or that procedural relief was warranted. When the…
Gallo Wine Distributors, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA issued Gallo Wine Distributors a repeat citation and proposed penalty on June 29, 1993. An employee signed for the citation the next day, making July 22 the deadline for a notice of contest, but Gallo did not send its contest until September. Gallo said it had not received the citation…
Fort Defiance Construction & Supply, Inc.
All three trenching items vacated
Fort Defiance Construction & Supply was installing utilities in a trench at a Dayton, Ohio, road project. OSHA alleged that employees lacked a safe exit, that the onsite foreman was not a competent person, and that the trench lacked adequate cave-in protection. The judge found that employees could…
W.E. Darin Construction Enterprises, Inc.
Connector ladder item vacated
W.E. Darin Construction Enterprises was erecting structural steel at a New York jobsite when a connector fell while climbing a column and later died from his injuries. OSHA alleged that Darin violated the stairway-and-ladder standard by not providing a ladder for access to the connection point. The…
Halocarbon Products Corporation
Commission approves $5,500 chemical-safety settlement
Halocarbon Products manufactured specialty chemicals at a New Jersey plant where OSHA investigated after a reported chemical exposure hospitalized two employees, one of whom later died. OSHA alleged general-duty, respirator-program, and hazard-communication violations and initially proposed $37,000…
Volmar Construction, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA issued Volmar Construction a repeat citation and proposed penalties on February 3, 1993. Volmar received the citation on February 8, making March 2 the contest deadline, and its representative attended an informal conference before that deadline. OSHA told the representative that any contest…
Blankenship & Lee Pipeline Co., Inc.
Trenching and hazard-communication violations affirmed
Blankenship & Lee Pipeline was reconstructing sewer lines for a pumping station in Pelham, Georgia. An employee worked in a vertical trench that measured between 5 feet 4 inches and 6 feet deep without a ladder, adequate cave-in protection, or a hard hat; loose spoil was stored only inches from the…
E.R. Del Moral, Inc.
Scaffold and fall-hazard violations affirmed
E.R. Del Moral was performing construction work in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The judge found that employees worked on elevated scaffolds and platforms with missing end guardrails and inadequate intermediate rails, and that safety belts did not substitute for the guardrails required by the cited…
Tackett Tank, Inc.
Settlement approved over employee representative's objections
The Secretary and Tackett Tank submitted a settlement agreement in a case arising from an accident that caused an employee's death. The employee's father, acting as an authorized employee representative, submitted documents objecting to the settlement. The judge explained that Commission precedent…
Danella Construction Corporation of Florida, Inc.
Inspection and power-line-clearance items vacated
Danella Construction was installing telephone lines in Lake Worth, Florida, and used a boom truck to place an eight-foot trench shield. OSHA alleged that the company failed to have competent-person inspections and operated the boom within 10 feet of energized overhead lines. The judge found that…
Kiewit Western Company
Vehicle-lighting citations vacated for earthmoving equipment
Kiewit Western used large tractors and trailers to haul earth at the Denver airport construction site, including at night and in poor visibility. OSHA cited the equipment because the trailers lacked taillights and brake lights and two tractors lacked working brake lights. The Commission held that a…
West Texas Warehouse Company
Hazardous-waste-response items vacated
West Texas Warehouse leased part of a Lubbock warehouse to another company that stored hazardous-waste-labeled batteries. After some batteries caught fire, fire and state environmental officials asked West Texas to help move them because the tenant would not act. West Texas employees used gloves…
L.G. Defelice, Inc.
Overhead-line violations affirmed as serious
L.G. Defelice was rehabilitating a section of Interstate 70 near Washington, Pennsylvania, where heavy equipment regularly passed beneath overhead electrical lines. Two machines contacted the lines in separate incidents, and the judge found that Defelice had not trained employees on the specific…
Akbar Electric Service Company
Commission approves $200 settlement
An ALJ dismissed Akbar Electric Service Company's notice of contest after the company failed to answer the Secretary's complaint or respond to an order to show cause. The ALJ's default order had affirmed the citations and proposed penalties in full. After Commission review was directed, the parties…
Complete General Construction Co.
Commission approves bridge-safety settlement
Complete General Construction was performing construction work on a bridge over the Black Fork of the Mohican River near Lucas, Ohio. OSHA cited the company for failing to provide life jackets, ring buoys, a lifesaving skiff, edge guardrails, and protection from protruding reinforcing steel. The…
Bielmeier Builders, Inc.
Commission approves a settlement, dropping the electrical item and cutting the guardrail item to other-than-serious
Bielmeier Builders was a custom home builder putting up a two-story house in Clarence, New York. After an April 1991 inspection, OSHA cited the company for two serious violations: running a saw off an extension cord in a damp garage area with no ground-fault protection, and leaving an open-sided…
St. Thomas Gas Company
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA issued St. Thomas Gas Company two citations on November 26, 1993, which the company received on December 1. The 15-working-day contest period expired on December 22, but the company's contest letter was dated December 29 and OSHA received it on January 3, 1994. St. Thomas Gas did not respond…
Union Drilling
Citations dismissed because CNG controlled the work
Union Drilling supplied workers to CNG Transmission for a natural-gas well flow-back operation. Two night-shift workers were later found inside a frac tank and were determined to have died from asphyxiation, after which OSHA cited Union and CNG separately. The judge focused on which company…
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.