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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DaNite Sign Co.
Aerial-lift controls violation affirmed
DaNite Sign used truck-mounted crane booms and attached platforms to raise employees for sign installation. Three platforms lacked upper controls, and a fourth crane's lower controls could not override the upper controls in an emergency. The Commission held that the standard applied because DaNite…
Herasco Contractors, Inc.
Abatement letter treated as timely contest
OSHA issued two citations to Herasco Contractors, and the company timely filed a document titled “Abatement Letter.” OSHA did not forward that letter to the Commission and later sought collection of penalties and late fees. The Commission held that the letter clearly disputed the citations by…
Kraft Food Ingredients Corp.
Mixed ruling on hot-work explosion hazards
Two Kraft maintenance employees were cutting bolts from a valve on a corn-oil pipeline when a fire and explosion occurred; one employee died and the other sustained severe burns. The Commission held that an explosive atmosphere could develop when the cutting torch heated a pressurized mixture of…
Westvaco Corporation
Printer-slotter lockout violation affirmed
Westvaco employees adjusted the cutting and slotting heads of a paperboard printer-slotter between customer orders without locking out the machine. The Commission held that the adjustments were “setting up” performed before normal production operations, so they did not qualify for the exception for…
Contractors Welding of Western New York, Inc.
Earlier Commission decision vacated after court remand
Contractors Welding was cited after OSHA inspected repair work on a metal drawbridge in Buffalo, New York. The disputed items concerned life jackets for employees working over or near water and ring buoys equipped with sufficient line for emergency rescue. In 1991, the Commission vacated the…
John J. Smith Masonry Co.
Two scaffold violations affirmed and one vacated
John J. Smith Masonry used a mobile scaffold while replacing a limestone window sill at the Cervantes Convention Center in St. Louis. The ALJ vacated the allegation that the scaffold was not erected under competent-person supervision because the Secretary did not identify who supervised its…
Security Elevator, Inc.
Fuel-cylinder wrench citation vacated
Security Elevator was cited after an OSHA inspection at a construction project for Sterling Drug Company in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. One alleged violation concerning fuel-gas equipment was settled before the hearing. The remaining item alleged that a required wrench was not left on a fuel-gas…
Sparrow Construction Corp.
General contractor liable for unshored fire-damaged floors
Sparrow Construction was the general contractor for the rehabilitation of fire-damaged residential buildings in New York City. Two subcontractor employees removed debris beneath floors and structural areas that had partially collapsed, with hanging debris above them and no shoring or bracing. The…
Rog's Inc.
Two personnel-platform defects affirmed as nonserious
Rog's Inc., a crane rigging and erection company, used a crane-suspended seat while removing an unused smokestack. The ALJ treated the device as a personnel platform under the cited crane standards. He vacated the crane-equipment items because OSHA inspected and photographed a different crane from…
Irwin Steel Erectors Inc.
Four contested construction items vacated
Irwin Steel Erectors performed steel erection and welding during construction of a Motorola facility in Austin, Texas. At the hearing, it resolved six serious citation items by withdrawing its contests in exchange for reduced penalties. The four remaining items concerned fire-extinguisher access…
Manter Co., Inc.
Trench violations affirmed and willful classification reduced
Manter Company excavated a nine-foot-deep trench to install a valve on an existing water main at a restaurant property in Woburn, Massachusetts. Employees had no ladder or stairway and climbed a wet, steep Type C soil bank that was partly blocked by a backhoe, so the ALJ affirmed the safe-egress…
Foster-Wheeler Constructors, Inc.
Initial asbestos-monitoring violation affirmed
Foster-Wheeler Constructors renovated a boiler at a Florida power plant while an asbestos-abatement subcontractor removed insulation nearby. Foster employees worked and traveled in areas where monitoring and physical samples showed that asbestos fibers had escaped the removal enclosures, but Foster…
Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union
PSM abatement schedule challenge remanded
After an explosion injured or killed employees at an IMC Fertilizer plant in Sterlington, Louisiana, the Secretary and the employer entered a pre-contest settlement that included $10 million in penalties and a corporate process safety management implementation schedule. The employees' union…
Phillips 66 Company
Union settlement-rescission dispute remanded for evidence
After an explosion and fire caused fatalities and injuries at Phillips 66's Houston Chemical Complex, OSHA issued citations proposing more than $5.6 million in penalties. The Secretary and Phillips later reached a $4 million main settlement that also established a corporate process safety…
Shelly and Sands, Inc.
Site-specific paving safety-program item vacated
Shelly and Sands was repaving a county road near Senecaville, Ohio, when a finish roller went over a berm and landed on its operator, who died from her injuries. OSHA alleged that the company lacked an adequate site-specific accident-prevention program for roller operations. The ALJ found that the…
C.D. Smith Construction Co., Inc.
Repeat unguarded-rebar violation affirmed
C.D. Smith Construction was performing general building work in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where vertical reinforcing bars projected above a mezzanine deck without caps or guardrails. Employees came within three or four feet of the rebar while nailing plywood and returned within one or two feet while…
Fluidics/Poole & Kent Joint Venture
Grinder guard and fire-extinguisher items affirmed
Fluidics/Poole & Kent Joint Venture performed mechanical work at a site in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. An employee removed the guard from a hand grinder to work in a confined area, and the ALJ credited the compliance officer's testimony that the employee used it without reinstalling the guard…
Hensel Phelps Construction Co.
Flammable-liquid storage item affirmed
Hensel Phelps was the general contractor for construction of a federal prison facility in Florence, Colorado. A painting subcontractor stored far more than 25 gallons of flammable and combustible liquids in a warehouse without an approved cabinet, near electrical equipment, smoking, and employee…
Dover Elevator Company
Unsecured-ladder item reduced to de minimis by settlement
Dover Elevator was an elevator subcontractor on a renovation project in New York City where OSHA issued serious, repeat, and other-than-serious citations. The Commission directed review only of an unsecured portable ladder item that the ALJ had affirmed as repeated with a $1,000 penalty. In a…
B & M Construction
Three scaffold access and fall-protection items affirmed
B & M Construction performed asbestos removal around a boiler at a City of Lubbock power plant. OSHA found no access ladder, two unguarded openings in a walkway about 12 feet above the ground, and an unguarded I-beam used as a walkway. B & M argued that employees had not worked on the boiler…
Ocean Concrete Contractors, Inc.
Floor-opening and rebar hazards affirmed
Ocean Concrete was a subcontractor constructing a building at the Naval Submarine Base at Kings Bay, Georgia. Employees worked at the edges of an unguarded five-by-eight-foot stairwell opening and an unguarded open-sided platform about eight feet above the ground. They also worked near uncapped…
Cornell and Company, Inc.
Withdrawal leaves serious fall-protection violation final
Cornell and Company performed structural steel work while dismantling part of a coker unit at Mobil's Paulsboro Refinery in New Jersey. OSHA observed two employees walking beams about 80 to 90 feet above lower surfaces without safety nets, lifelines, or other fall protection. The ALJ accepted that…
Action Craft, Inc.
Penalties reduced for eight manufacturing violations
Action Craft manufactured small fishing boats with about 18 employees at a facility in Cape Coral, Florida. OSHA cited eight serious conditions involving storage-area load limits and railings, dispensing flammable liquids, a modified forklift, and guarding on a cylinder machine, bandsaw, and bench…
Catalina Freight Lines
Barge vehicle-guarding and recordkeeping items affirmed
Catalina Freight Lines loaded and unloaded cargo vehicles on a barge at its Wilmington, California terminal. Five days after a front loader backed over the bow, OSHA observed forklifts and trailers operating with only an eight-inch angle iron around the deck edge. The ALJ held that Coast Guard…
New England Industries, Inc.
Repeat and failure-to-abate items affirmed
New England Industries manufactured jewelry parts in Providence, Rhode Island, and was reinspected after failing to document correction of earlier safety and health violations. The ALJ affirmed a repeated exit-route item because broken concrete and an uneven walkway created trip hazards similar to…
Madison Underground, Inc.
Commission declines declaratory review of trench item
Madison Underground performed sewer and water-main work in two unprotected excavations in New Berlin, Wisconsin. The ALJ affirmed one willful trench-protection item because an employee entered the north excavation, the company had no communicated rule against entry into unprotected trenches, and it…
Renewal Arts Contracting Corp.
Electrical grounding violations affirmed
Renewal Arts Contracting was performing construction work in the Bronx, New York. An employee used a drill and extension cord with missing grounding pins, and the company's project manager knew about the defective equipment. The ALJ affirmed a serious violation because the missing continuous ground…
Dover Elevator Company, Inc.
GFCI citation vacated based on adequate safety program
Dover Elevator employees were installing an elevator in Ridgeland, Mississippi, when a ground-fault circuit interrupter tripped because of a defective receptacle and extension cord. The supervising mechanic temporarily left an extension cord connected to an operable but unprotected receptacle while…
A. R. Butler Construction Co.
Commission approves trench-case settlement
A. R. Butler Construction was installing a sewer line in an eight-and-a-half to nine-foot trench in Flint City, Alabama. The underlying ALJ decision found that the steep earthen route was not a safe means of exit and that employees worked without adequate cave-in protection. The judge classified…
Supermason Enterprises
Willful unprotected-trench violation affirmed
Supermason Enterprises installed a sanitary sewer in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, with two workers in an excavation eight to ten feet deep. The ALJ rejected the company's claim that the workers belonged to a subcontractor because the supposed agreement was unsigned, the alleged subcontractor had never…
Modern Sales and Construction Company, Inc., d/b/a MOSACO
Three damaged-cord items affirmed
MOSACO was the general contractor for expansion of an industrial facility in Wilmington, Ohio. OSHA found energized extension cords with insulation cut deeply enough to expose copper conductors, a plug connection without proper strain relief, and a worn section of cord with secondary insulation…
Crescent Street Construction Corp.
Fourteen serious items settled for $3,200
Crescent Street Construction received a serious citation containing 15 items with $15,300 in proposed penalties and a separate three-item other-than-serious citation with no penalty. The Secretary withdrew the first serious item. Immediately before the hearing, the parties settled the remaining 14…
Cherry Hill Tune & Lube, Inc.
Citations affirmed after employer failed to appear
OSHA issued Cherry Hill Tune & Lube two citations involving machinery and hazardous chemicals. The company filed a notice of contest, but mail sent to its address was returned after it moved without leaving a forwarding address. A later hearing was postponed at the request of the person who signed…
Forrest Electrical Services
Fan, live-wire, and posting items affirmed
Forrest Electrical Services was an electrical subcontractor on a medical-clinic project in Spring, Texas. A temporary foreman brought an inadequately guarded floor fan to the site, where it was available for use in an area employees passed through. The ALJ affirmed the fan item as serious because…
Kiewit-Atkinson-Kenney
High-voltage tunnel cable approval violation affirmed
Kiewit-Atkinson-Kenney used a 13,800-volt mine power-feeder cable to run a tunnel-boring machine for the North Tunnel System on Deer Island, Massachusetts. The cable traveled along a road and beach, under a street, through a jobsite, and down a shaft containing water. The ALJ held that Mine Safety…
Ramzel-Texas Services, Inc.
Three electrical items affirmed during asbestos work
Ramzel-Texas Services performed asbestos removal at Lubbock High School in Texas. The ALJ rejected its challenge to the inspection because the school principal had control of the occupied school premises and validly consented to OSHA's entry. Two extension cords bypassed the company's GFCI panel…
McCrory Stores and J.J. Newberry Stores
Nationwide fire-safety settlement approved
The Secretary settled four cases involving McCrory and J.J. Newberry retail stores while the companies were operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The agreement reduced the total proposed penalties to a $500,000 general unsecured claim and changed all citation classifications to the…
Schenectady Hardware & Electric Co.
Late contest dismissed after missed callback
Schenectady Hardware & Electric received two OSHA citations and proposed penalties on March 20, 1992, making April 10 the last day to contest them. Its vice president requested an informal conference before deciding whether to contest. An OSHA representative called, but the vice president was…
Beta Construction
General contractor liable for inadequate night lighting
Beta Construction was the general contractor for removal and replacement of roofing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development headquarters in Washington, D.C. Its asbestos-removal subcontractor worked at night in areas measuring as little as 1.95 foot-candles, below the required five…
Byrd Produce Company
Attorney neglect leaves late citations final
OSHA issued Byrd Produce Company two serious citations after inspecting two California ranches, alleging failures to provide drinking cups and hand-washing water and proposing $640 in penalties. Byrd promptly delivered the citations to its attorney, but the attorney filed the notice of contest four…
Jackson Associates of Nassau
Late-contest case remanded over alleged OSHA misrepresentation
OSHA cited Jackson Associates of Nassau, operator of the Jackson Hotel, for eleven serious violations and one willful violation, with $11,230 in proposed penalties. The hotel filed its notice of contest after the statutory deadline while one owner was caring for her terminally ill husband and her…
Quick-Cast Limited
Seven serious citation items settled for $675
OSHA cited Quick-Cast Limited, an aluminum casting and engraving business, for safety conditions involving portable fire extinguishers, bench grinders, oxygen and acetylene cylinder storage, flexible electrical wiring, and its written hazard communication program. An ALJ had affirmed most of the…
Ray Sumlin Construction Co., Inc.
Unprotected excavation results in $4,000 penalty
OSHA observed a Ray Sumlin Construction employee working in a six-foot-deep excavation with vertical walls and no cave-in protection at a county jail project in Alabama. The superintendent initially requested a warrant but later invited the compliance officer to examine the excavation and helped…
Metal Recycling Company
Scrap-yard hazards yield mixed ruling and $400 penalty
OSHA inspected Metal Recycling Company's three-employee scrap-metal facility in El Paso, Texas, and issued a serious citation with multiple items. The judge affirmed serious violations involving unsecured access stairs, an exit leading into a blocked and fenced yard, obstructed aisles, hazardous…
Ohio Pizza Products Supply Co., Inc., d/b/a Presto America's Favorite Food
Willful sheeter citation reduced to serious
Presto used a dough sheeter in its pizza-shell bakery, where larger dough balls repeatedly jammed beneath a guard near the machine's rollers. Two employees sustained hand injuries while trying to push dough through the rollers. The judge found the guard inadequate and rejected the company's…
National Engineering & Contracting Company
Electrical and rebar violations affirmed for $400
OSHA inspected National Engineering & Contracting Company while it served as general contractor on an interstate bridge replacement project in Ohio. The judge rejected challenges to the anticipatory inspection warrant and found no credible basis for the company's claim that OSHA acted vindictively…
Art Specialty Company
Lamp manufacturer receives mixed ruling and $5,700 penalty
OSHA cited Art Specialty Company, a 29-employee lamp manufacturer, for numerous serious and other-than-serious conditions. The judge vacated a stairway citation because the Secretary did not prove employees used the stairs, and vacated the metal-shear portion of a machine-guarding item because the…
A.R. Contractors, Inc.
LP-gas traffic-protection citation vacated
A.R. Contractors used two liquid-petroleum gas tanks to fuel roofing operations at a Florida commercial construction project. OSHA alleged that the tanks were exposed to possible damage from construction traffic without adequate precautions. The judge rejected the contractor's argument that the…
North Bergen Animal Hospital
Withdrawal leaves late-contest dismissal final
OSHA issued North Bergen Animal Hospital two citations and proposed penalties, but the hospital filed its notice of contest after the 15-working-day deadline. The hospital explained that a receptionist had opened the citation mail and placed it with solicitation mail that remained unread for…
Trinity Industries, Inc.
Hose items withdrawn, confined-space welding violation remains
OSHA inspected Trinity Industries' railroad-car and tank plant after a welder was fatally injured in an explosion inside a liquid-petroleum-gas tank. The ALJ found that the employee's failure to follow established leak-testing and ventilation procedures was unpreventable misconduct, but he affirmed…
Fluidics, Inc.
Mixed construction ruling assesses $13,600
Fluidics performed mechanical-system renovations at a Philadelphia public-housing project with unusually difficult site-security conditions. The judge affirmed serious violations involving unsecured and improperly separated compressed-gas cylinders, missing GFCI protection, exposed energized…
Amoco Oil Company
HF respiratory-protection violations affirmed for $7,000
Amoco operated an alkylation unit containing large quantities of hydrofluoric acid at its Texas City refinery. A maintenance employee experienced HF exposure while opening a line that had not been fully depressurized, and the employee was wearing an air-fed chemical hood that was not a respirator…
Redondo Construction Corporation
Ladder and repeat guardrail violations affirmed
Redondo Construction was the general contractor for a pier and passenger-terminal project in San Juan, Puerto Rico. OSHA found a portable ladder whose side rails did not extend three feet above the landing and that lacked a required grabrail, even though employees used it for access. OSHA also…
PDC, Inc.
Trench-exit item affirmed, cave-in item vacated
PDC employees installed a gas line in a trench beside a Georgia highway that ranged from four and a half to eight and a half feet deep. The trench had no ladder or other safe means of egress, and workers exited by placing their hands on the ground and jumping from the shallow end. The judge…
Parmer Building Corporation
Aerial-lift rail violations affirmed for $1,000
Parmer Building Corporation performed steel erection at a large Texas construction project. An OSHA compliance officer observed two employees standing on the top and middle rails of an aerial-lift basket while connecting a girder about 52 feet above ground. The employees were also tied off to the…
Ralph Taynton, d/b/a Service Specialty Company
Secretary withdraws all citations
OSHA cited Service Specialty Company, a marine-construction contractor, for eighteen alleged serious violations and one other-than-serious posting violation, with $32,700 in proposed penalties. The ALJ found that the company's business affected interstate commerce but that OSHA had not proved it…
D.H. Shelton Associates, Inc.
Scaffold guardrail violation affirmed with reduced penalty
D.H. Shelton Associates was a subcontractor on an automobile dealership construction project in El Paso, Texas. The judge rejected the company's challenge to the OSHA inspection because the general contractor consented and a worker who identified himself as Shelton's foreman did not object. OSHA…
Peterson Brothers Steel Erection Company
Connector fall violation affirmed, penalty reduced
A connector erecting structural steel for an Austin office building was fatally injured after a suspended beam knocked him from a perimeter beam about 70 feet above ground. Peterson Brothers used temporary floors for interior fall protection and safety belts for bolters, but its connectors had no…
State Sheet Metal Company, Inc.
Roof-decking fall violations affirmed
State Sheet Metal employees installed metal roof decking on two one-story New Jersey warehouses at heights of approximately 27 and 32 feet without fall protection. The Commission held that the decking being installed did not itself satisfy the temporary-floor option because it did not protect…
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation
Willful locomotive-brake citation vacated
A Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel locomotive collided with a disabled train while pulling loaded hopper cars, fatally injuring the conductor and injuring the trainee engineer. OSHA alleged a willful general-duty violation because the company continued operating the locomotive after reports of…
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.