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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CNG Transmission Corporation
Mixed ruling on frac-tank hazards
CNG Transmission was preparing a natural-gas field for underground storage and used workers supplied by Union Drilling to monitor a frac-fluid flow-back operation. After the piping was changed so that fluid and gas flowed directly into a frac tank, two night-shift workers were found inside the tank…
Dunlop Tire Corporation
Settlement reclassifies citation and sets $7,000 penalty
OSHA issued Dunlop Tire Corporation one citation in October 1992, and Dunlop filed a timely contest. The United Rubber Workers, Local No. 915, was granted party status. When the case came to hearing, the parties announced that they had resolved every issue and stated their agreement on the record…
Hern Iron Works, Inc.
Commission raises record-access penalty to $5,000
Hern Iron Works refused to provide its OSHA injury and illness records during an inspection conducted under an administrative search warrant. After earlier litigation over the warrant, an ALJ affirmed a willful record-access violation but reduced the Secretary's proposed $10,000 penalty to $200…
Spancrete Northeast, Inc.
Commission rejects greater-hazard defense for safety nets
Spancrete Northeast installed precast concrete planks for a 10-story hotel addition in Uniondale, New York. OSHA cited the company because three employees worked near the seventh-floor perimeter without safety nets or other fall protection while directing a crane and positioning 5,400-pound planks…
Homestead Gourmet Food Co., Inc.
Settlement approved after hearing
OSHA inspected Homestead Gourmet Food Company's facility in Linden, New Jersey, and issued two citations. The citations alleged six serious violations and five other-than-serious violations under standards addressing exits, personal protective equipment, emergency washing, electrical training…
Caribco International Corporation
Scaffold and safety-program violations affirmed
Caribco International was working at a fitness-facility construction site at Fort Buchanan in San Juan, Puerto Rico. OSHA cited missing scaffold guardrails, an unguarded open-sided floor, inadequate scaffold bracing, and failures to maintain an accident-prevention program and train employees to…
Nitro Electric Company
Commission denies EAJA fees based on parent-company resources
Nitro Electric sought attorneys' fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act after prevailing in an OSHA matter. Nitro itself met the Act's financial eligibility limit, but its parent company, Concorp, exceeded the $7 million net-worth ceiling for a qualifying corporation. The record showed shared…
Monitor Construction Company
Commission upholds formwork fall citations at $1,260
Monitor Construction erected concrete formwork for a parking garage at a Cincinnati shopping mall. OSHA cited 16-inch-wide, 30-inch-deep beam troughs that were not covered or guarded and an open deck edge nearly 10 feet above the ground. The Commission held that the troughs qualified as floor…
Armco Steel Co., L.P.
Crane-runway and cylinder citations vacated
Armco Steel operated a steel-manufacturing facility in Middletown, Ohio. OSHA cited an unguarded crane runway 34 feet above the floor under the open-sided-platform standard, alternatively alleged that employees needed safety belts and lanyards, and cited an unsecured acetylene cylinder under the…
Southern Forming, Inc.
Broad safety violations affirmed at $69,150
Southern Forming, also known as Suncrete Construction, performed concrete formwork at construction sites in Sunny Isles and Delray Beach, Florida. At the Sunny Isles site, an employee fell to his death from a stairway, and OSHA's investigation identified numerous fall-protection, stairway…
Metric Constructors, Inc.
General contractor held liable for subcontractor hazards
Metric Constructors was the general contractor for a 29-building federal prison project covering about 200 acres in Estill, South Carolina. OSHA cited scaffold, trench, hazard-communication, fire-extinguisher, compressed-gas-cylinder, and trench-access conditions created by subcontractors whose…
Nooter Construction Co.
Cylinder and ladder items affirmed, scaffold item vacated
Nooter Construction was building coke drums at a New Jersey refinery when OSHA cited compressed-gas-cylinder, ladder, and scaffold conditions. The Commission reversed the ALJ's cylinder ruling, holding that a three-sided cylinder truck was not suitable when its securing chain was left open and the…
Armco Steel Company, L.P.
Platform and runway items affirmed, switch item vacated
Armco Steel operated a steel-manufacturing plant in Middletown, Ohio. The judge affirmed a serious violation for an unguarded seven-foot-high pulpit area where operators regularly retrieved supplies, finding that the area functioned as a covered work platform, and assessed $700. He also affirmed a…
General Electric Company Aircraft Engine Group
Wet-location electrical citation vacated
General Electric manufactured aircraft engines at its Evendale, Ohio, facility. OSHA cited an electrical enclosure on a building column under the rule for damp or wet locations. The area was dry during the inspection and normally stayed dry, although earlier rainwater had leaked through the roof…
Novinger's Inc.
Scaffold access item modified and guardrail item affirmed
Novinger's was an interior-finishes subcontractor working inside an air shaft at a building project in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Employees reached a tube-and-coupler scaffold by stepping over a two-inch lip and across a 9.5-inch gap from the third-floor slab. The judge held that the safe-access…
Thomas Lindstrom Company, Inc.
Tag-line citation vacated as infeasible
Thomas Lindstrom was the structural-steel-erection subcontractor for a new Philadelphia medical examiner building. OSHA alleged that the company failed to use tag lines to control steel loads, and the judge held that the standard normally makes tag-line use mandatory. Lindstrom proved that using…
Seifert Construction Co., Inc.
Floor-opening citation reduced to other-than-serious
Seifert Construction conceded that floor depressions at its worksite violated the cited floor-opening standard. The only remaining dispute was whether the violation was serious. The stipulated facts described depressions about eight inches deep, some containing four five-inch bolts, and competing…
Allstate Roofing, Inc.
Willful roof-fall violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Allstate Roofing had about five employees working on a nearly flat roof that measured 200 by 120 feet and was 20 feet above the ground. OSHA observed employees without the fall protection required for built-up roofing work, including one worker who came within about three feet of an unguarded edge…
Ludwig-McIntosh Bulk Haulers, Inc.
Willful eye-protection citation reduced to serious
Ludwig-McIntosh hauled industrial coke and maintained its vehicles in a Toledo shop where drilling, grinding, welding, and coke dust created eye hazards. A mechanic was struck in the eye by a drill bit while his safety glasses were pushed up on his forehead. The judge found conflicting and…
Sterling/ICC, and its Successors
Late contests dismissed after remand hearing
An earlier order dismissed Sterling/ICC's notices of contest as untimely. The Commission sent the matters back for a hearing because the company's vice president suggested that OSHA had led him to believe a lawyer was required to contest the citations. At the hearing, the OSHA district supervisor…
Southwest Refractory, Inc.
Suspended-load violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Southwest Refractory hired an independent crane company to turn a 17,000-pound steel pipe while Southwest applied refractory lining at its Sapulpa, Oklahoma, facility. A Southwest employee crouched beneath the suspended pipe to move supporting timbers, and the pipe fell on him; he later died from…
TTX Company, Acorn Division
Lead-exposure items vacated, notice duties affirmed
TTX repaired railroad cars in Jacksonville, Florida, using cutting, welding, and grinding processes that could disturb lead-based paint on older cars. The judge vacated a permissible-exposure-limit item because OSHA placed its sampling cassette outside the employee's welding helmet even though the…
Bermudez & Longo, S.E.
Mixed ruling on grinder and electrical violations
OSHA inspected Bermudez & Longo's construction site in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. The judge affirmed two serious grinder violations because an accessible bench grinder used by employees lacked a work rest and a safety guard, assessing $375 for each item. He vacated a third grinder item because the…
Super Sky Products, Inc.
Atrium fall-protection violations affirmed
A Super Sky employee was water-testing a sloped glass atrium in Cleveland while working from a narrow gutter high above the patio below. A Labor Department attorney and OSHA supervisor watched through binoculars and saw that the employee was not tied to the safety line, although Super Sky disputed…
Safeway Store No. 914
Commission affirms hazard-communication violations without penalty
OSHA cited a Safeway grocery store in Loveland, Colorado, for hazard-communication deficiencies involving a windshield washer used to clean checkout scanners and a sanitizer used in the meat department. The Commission held that the citations were timely because OSHA issued them within six months…
Kaspar Electroplating Corp.
Commission affirms three machine-guarding violations and vacates drill-press items
OSHA cited Kaspar Electroplating after inspecting its Shiner, Texas facility. On review, the Commission rejected Kaspar's argument that the citation was untimely, finding that OSHA issued it within six months of discovering the uncorrected conditions. It also held that a compliance officer may…
Unarco Commercial Products
Commission holds plating-tank footholds were not platforms
Unarco manufactured shopping carts on an automated electroplating line in Wagoner, Oklahoma. Employees sometimes stood on narrow PVC pipes, copper anode rails, or carry arms to retrieve parts that had fallen into chemical tanks, and one employee had suffered serious burns after falling into a tank…
J.A. Jones Construction Co.
Commission affirms item-specific fall-protection penalties
This case returned to the Commission after an earlier decision affirmed numerous serious, rather than willful, fall-protection violations at J.A. Jones Construction's Chicago high-rise project and remanded for item-specific penalties. On remand, the ALJ evaluated the fall distance, degree of…
Central Florida Underground, Inc.
Crane and rigging violations affirmed after fatal power-line contact
Central Florida Underground was an underground pipe contractor whose crew used a crane to move a trench box near energized overhead electrical lines. During the work, the crane boom contacted the lines and an employee touching the crane was electrocuted. The judge found that Central failed to train…
Container Corporation of America
Three disputed paper-mill safety items vacated
Container Corporation of America operated a paper mill in Fernandina Beach, Florida. The parties settled most citation issues before the hearing, leaving three items concerning wet and oily floors, protective clothing for welders, and insulation or guarding of steam pipes. The judge vacated the…
Otis Elevator Company
Missing access-records rule classified as de minimis
Otis Elevator was installing three elevators at a construction site when an OSHA inspector asked for a copy of the employee medical and exposure records access rule. Otis had material safety data sheets at the site but did not have the rule or its appendices, and it did not create or maintain…
Hartford Roofing Co., Inc.
Warning-line violation affirmed on 69-foot-wide roof
Hartford Roofing was performing built-up roofing work on a low-pitched roof that was about 69 feet wide and 19 feet above the ground. Two employees moving sheetrock worked about eight feet from the roof edge. Hartford used only a safety monitor, but the judge found that the roof-width rule required…
Ray Wentzell, d/b/a N.E.E.T. Builders
Discovery dismissal set aside for further inquiry
N.E.E.T. Builders was a construction business whose owner represented himself in proceedings over a serious citation and proposed penalties totaling $10,050. The ALJ dismissed the notice of contest after the employer did not provide more complete discovery responses despite two orders. The…
A A Quality Construction Materials
Settlement approved after hearing conferences
A.A. Quality Construction Material manufactured and sold construction materials. OSHA cited the company for three alleged willful, ten serious, and four other-than-serious violations, with proposed penalties totaling $24,700. The company contested the citations, and the case proceeded to a…
Anderson Excavating & Wrecking Co.
Bridge fall and hard-hat violations affirmed
Anderson Excavating & Wrecking was the demolition contractor removing the old Talmadge Bridge over the Savannah River. The ALJ held that OSHA's construction standards applied because the demolition was part of the larger bridge-replacement project and used construction trades and methods. Employees…
Mutual Erectors Inc.
Three safety violations affirmed for $2,300
Mutual Erectors was a small steel-erection contractor building the steel frame for a school addition. The ALJ vacated a general-industry sling-inspection item because the construction rigging standard more specifically covered the condition and the Secretary did not prove a missed inspection. She…
Triangle Engineering Corp.
Mixed construction ruling carries $1,350 in penalties
Triangle Engineering was the general contractor building a prison in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. The ALJ affirmed serious violations involving site-specific safety instruction, missing edge guardrails, an accessible crane swing radius, and an unprotected excavation. She also affirmed other-than-serious…
B & M Roofing
Two serious-item penalties totaling $2,250 assessed
B & M Roofing of Colorado contested OSHA citations and proposed penalties, then proceeded to a hearing on July 27, 1993. The ALJ entered findings of fact and conclusions of law on the hearing record, but the released written decision does not describe the cited conditions or identify the standards…
A.J. McNulty Co., Inc.
Hard-hat violation affirmed with a $750 penalty
A.J. McNulty was handling a six-foot concrete pillar with an overhead crane at a Staten Island worksite. Two employees receiving the pillar and their foreman were not wearing hard hats. The company acknowledged that the workers should have worn head protection and said it disciplined them under its…
C.R. Huffer Roofing
Aerial-lift basket violation affirmed for $3,000
C.R. Huffer Roofing worked on a fire-station renovation in Upper Arlington, Ohio. The Secretary withdrew the accident-program and repeat-training allegations, and the parties agreed that the aerial-lift control-check item would be other-than-serious. The ALJ vacated a personal fall-protection item…
TRW, Inc.
Repeated housekeeping violation draws a $3,400 penalty
TRW manufactured valves and valve-train parts at an eighteen-acre Cleveland plant. OSHA found coolant or grinding lubricant pooled around two machines and oil leaking onto the floor of a locker room used by employees and cleaning staff. The ALJ found that TRW permitted the locker-room inspection…
Bradley Villers d/b/a Shannon Marie Harvesters
Citations vacated because no employer relationship was proved
The crew of the vessel Shannon Marie harvested sea cucumbers in Washington waters under a partnership agreement. The ALJ rejected the claim that Coast Guard authority displaced OSHA because the vessel was uninspected and the Coast Guard did not regulate its fishing operations. The Secretary still…
Carolyn Manti, d/b/a Manti Homes
Pro se answer accepted and default dismissal reversed
OSHA cited Manti Homes for two serious and three repeated construction violations involving housekeeping, ladders, and scaffolding, with proposed penalties totaling $19,400. After Manti missed the formal answer deadline, the company sent a handwritten response that disputed the cited conditions but…
Pyramid Masonry Contractors, Inc.
Outrigger scaffold midrail violation affirmed
Pyramid Masonry Contractors was performing masonry construction in Orlando, Florida. OSHA cited the company after an employee worked on a 20-inch-wide outrigger platform 18 feet above the ground beside a 29-inch opening that lacked a midrail. The Commission held that the tubular welded frame…
Kenneth J. Herman, Inc.
Construction safety violations affirmed
Kenneth J. Herman, Inc. was constructing fire escapes at a New York worksite. OSHA cited employees working without required head protection, using a scaffold frame instead of safe access, and working on scaffolds without required guardrails or effective tie-off protection. OSHA also cited the…
Maskell-Robbins, Inc.
Pipe-loading hazard violation affirmed
Maskell-Robbins distributed polyethylene pipe and reloaded truckloads of large pipe at its Houston yard. During the work, an employee climbed onto loaded pipe, and shifting pipe fell from the truck, struck him, and caused his death. The Commission affirmed a serious general duty clause violation…
E. Smalis Painting Co., Inc.
Bridge-painting citations settled for $50,000
E. Smalis Painting was repainting the Tarentum Bridge in Pennsylvania when OSHA inspected the worksite. OSHA issued three citations alleging one willful, nine serious, and two other-than-serious violations, with proposed penalties totaling $75,000. The parties agreed that the company would withdraw…
RCS Rizzoli Corp. of N.Y.
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA personally served a serious citation and penalty notice on the manager of an RCS Rizzoli bookstore. The company did not file its notice of contest within the required 15 working days because its operations manager failed to forward the citation to counsel before leaving on a business trip. The…
Bancker Construction Corp.
Trench support violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Bancker Construction was installing a protective system in an excavation for a telephone equipment vault in Bethpage, New York. Employees entered the excavation while the support system was only partly installed, and the trench was more than five feet deep with vertical walls in unstable Type C…
Air Plastics, Inc.
Mixed ruling on pit hazards and chemical training
Air Plastics manufactured fiberglass tanks using molds mounted over production pits that employees entered during setup. The judge vacated a failure-to-abate general duty clause citation alleging hazardous confined-space atmospheres because OSHA did not prove that employees faced a significant risk…
Beta Construction Company
Roof-monitor violation affirmed as serious
A Beta Construction employee fell from a 73-foot-high roof while applying roofing membrane and was fatally injured. The Commission found that a coworker, not the foreman, was serving as the safety monitor, but that the monitoring procedure still failed to comply with the fall-protection standard. A…
Gilbane Building Company
Mixed ruling on construction-site fall hazards
Gilbane Building Company was the construction manager responsible for overall safety at a large Pennsylvania project. The judge held Gilbane liable under the multi-employer worksite doctrine for hazards affecting subcontractor employees. He affirmed serious violations for a scaffold without…
S.K. Construction Company
Trench citation vacated for employee misconduct
S.K. Construction was repairing a sanitary sewer in Middletown, Ohio. A newly promoted foreman briefly entered a 13-foot-deep excavation without the required protective system while a worker was retrieving equipment to widen a trench box. OSHA alleged a willful trench-protection violation and…
Ardyce Carlson, M.D.
Dismissal vacated for factual inquiry
The chief administrative law judge dismissed Dr. Ardyce Carlson's notice of contest after no answer to the Secretary's complaint or response to an order to show cause appeared in the Commission's file. Dr. Carlson told the Commission that he had mailed an answer by certified mail, had not received…
Pitt-Des Moines, Inc.
Derrick safety-device violation affirmed
Pitt-Des Moines used a derrick to carry employees in a man-basket more than 90 feet up a water tower without an anti-two-blocking device. The device prevents the overhaul ball from contacting the boom tip and severing the line supporting the basket. The Commission rejected the company's…
El Paso Crane and Rigging Co., Inc.
Mixed ruling on steel-erection fall protection
An El Paso Crane and Rigging employee fell 27 feet from a roof-level steel beam while trying to remove a kink from metal banding and was fatally injured. The Commission agreed that safety nets were infeasible for the tilt-wall building, but the company did not prove that a scissor lift was…
Holly Springs Brick and Tile Co. & Bickerstaff Clay Products Co., Inc.
Bickerstaff case severed after withdrawal
The Commission had consolidated the Holly Springs Brick and Tile and Bickerstaff Clay Products cases for review. The Secretary then withdrew the only citation item at issue in the Bickerstaff docket. With no issue remaining in that case, the Commission severed docket 91-0229 and deemed the judge's…
Worcester Steel Erectors, Inc.
Formwork violations reversed
A metal deck collapsed during construction at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and several employees fell 42 feet. OSHA cited Worcester Steel for four alleged deviations from the deck manufacturer's specifications under a formwork performance standard. The Commission found that Worcester Steel…
Mannkraft Corporation
Late-contest dismissal vacated for factual inquiry
The chief administrative law judge dismissed Mannkraft Corporation's notice of contest as untimely. Mannkraft's operations manager told the Commission that the citation had been addressed to a person who no longer worked for the company and that bankruptcy-related management changes and an…
Flintco, Inc.
Unguarded rebar violation classified as serious
Flintco was the general contractor for a hospital addition in Norman, Oklahoma. OSHA cited 12-inch reinforcing steel near an elevator shaft because employees could fall onto the uncapped rebar. The Commission held that the judge applied the wrong test when he focused on the low probability that an…
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.