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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Falcon Steel Company, Inc.
High-rise fall violations affirmed for $16,000
Falcon Steel erected structural steel for a 60-story Philadelphia high-rise and was cited for several fall hazards. The Commission affirmed a willful violation for using a crane-suspended man basket to carry employees to upper floors when elevators and ladders provided a conventional alternative…
Georgia-Pacific Corporation
Forward-loaded forklift violation affirmed
A Georgia-Pacific forklift carrying a 54-inch-high plywood load forward struck and fatally injured an employee who was crouched near a column in a heavily traveled plant aisle. The ALJ vacated the citation after interpreting the powered-industrial-truck standard to require a totally obstructed view…
Hern Iron Works, Inc.
Separate willful recordkeeping penalties upheld and reduced
OSHA cited Hern Iron Works, a small Idaho foundry, for failing to record multiple employee injuries on its OSHA 200 log and supplementary injury records. The Commission held that each separate failure to record an injury can constitute its own violation and support a separate penalty. It affirmed…
Oklahoma Natural Gas
Excavation items reduced to nonserious violations
Oklahoma Natural Gas employees worked in a trench while installing a gas line in Oklahoma City. The judge found that one wall did not meet the protective-system requirements for the Type C soil and that the foreman was not a competent person under the revised excavation rules because he had not yet…
Jersey Steel Erectors
Repeat hard-hat violation affirmed for $4,800
An OSHA compliance officer observed two Jersey Steel Erectors employees connecting steel at a New Jersey strip-mall project without hard hats. Jersey had a written rule, distributed safety information, and discussed head protection at toolbox meetings, but steel connectors frequently resisted…
Pullini Water Main & Sewer Contract
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA sent Pullini Water Main & Sewer Contractors serious and repeated citations by certified mail. The company received them on March 23, 1992, making April 13 the deadline to contest. Its attorney did not send a notice of contest until May 12. The judge found that the delay resulted from the…
Southeastern Paper Products Export
Machine-guarding items vacated, exit-sign items affirmed
Southeastern Paper Products operated a paper-converting facility in Miami, Florida. OSHA cited unguarded slitter blades and drill-press belts and pulleys, but the judge vacated those items because the Secretary relied on assumptions and did not prove that employees entered the danger zones during…
LT Precision Heat Treating d/b/a Precision
Bench-grinder violations affirmed with reduced penalties
LT Precision Heat Treating used a bench grinder for spark testing metal at its Brooklyn facility. The grinder's tongue guard was too far from the wheel, and the work rest had been pivoted away so that it provided no support. The company argued that spark testing was not grinding, but the judge…
B & F Mechanical Contractors, Inc.
Settlement replaces default and reduces penalties to $900
An ALJ dismissed B & F Mechanical's notice of contest and affirmed a citation with $6,300 in proposed penalties after the company failed to respond to orders and did not return a promised settlement agreement. The company's president later explained that an automobile accident, hospitalization…
Philadelphia Construction Equipment, Inc.
Default affirms excavation citations for $16,650
Philadelphia Construction Equipment failed to appear for its scheduled hearing on serious and willful construction citations. After an initial remand gave the company another opportunity, the ALJ rejected its explanation for arriving late and found no good cause to reinstate the case. The record…
Conagra Flour Milling Company
Commission splits flour-mill safety citations and assesses $500
Conagra operated a flour-milling facility in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, where OSHA cited battery servicing, powered industrial trucks, machine guarding, compressed-air cleaning, and grain-handling practices. The Commission vacated the personal-protective-equipment and eyewash items because OSHA's…
Hamilton Fixture
Commission upholds expanded inspection and assesses $2,450
Hamilton Fixture manufactured wooden store-display fixtures at a plant in Hamilton, Ohio, with about 350 employees. OSHA began with a union complaint about safety practices and expanded the inspection plant-wide after the compliance officer calculated a lost-workday injury rate about three times…
Morrison-Knudsen Co., Inc./Yonkers Contracting Co., Inc., A Joint Venture
Willful lead-protection violations draw $40,000
A Morrison-Knudsen and Yonkers Contracting joint venture used cutting torches to demolish a lead-painted bridge in New York City, exposing employees to hazardous airborne lead. The Commission held that the construction air-contaminant standards applied alongside the more specific welding and…
Ludvik Electric
Unguarded platform citation dismissed under multi-employer defense
A Ludvik Electric employee fell to his death from an unguarded equipment-support deck at a Colorado construction site. The judge found that the deck was a covered work platform and that Ludvik could have anticipated employee use of it. Ludvik did not create or control the missing guardrails because…
Joseph B. Fay Co.
Bridge-edge fall citation vacated
Joseph P. Fay Company was removing a bridge deck in Columbia, New Jersey. OSHA alleged that two employees walked within a few feet of an unguarded bridge edge more than 25 feet above the ground. The judge found that the compliance officer could not reliably identify the workers as Fay employees and…
Potomac Iron Works, Inc.
Roof-edge fall protection violation affirmed
Potomac Iron Works performed steel erection work on a building in Washington, D.C. OSHA observed an employee signaling a crane at the roof edge about 68 feet above the ground without effective fall protection. The employee wore a safety belt and lanyard but was not tied off, and his superintendent…
Lancaster Colony Corp., Candle Lite
Fatality-reporting violation affirmed with reduced penalty
A Candle-Lite employee was injured while operating a forklift and died twelve days later from a condition the death certificate attributed to the workplace accident. The company did not report the death to OSHA until an outside recordkeeping review identified the omission several months later. The…
Piping of Ohio, Inc.
Trenching violations affirmed, willful item reclassified as repeated
Piping of Ohio was replacing a water line in two excavations at an Ohio steel plant. The judge found that employees lacked adequate trench-safety instruction, did not have a safe means of exit, and were not protected by inspections from a qualified competent person. The judge also found that the…
Waldon Health Care Center & ARA Woodlake Nursing Home
Hepatitis B citations vacated
ARA Living Centers operated the Waldon Health Care Center in Louisiana and the Woodlake Nursing Home in Texas. OSHA alleged that nurses and nursing assistants faced hepatitis B transmission through contact with blood or other bodily fluids and proposed offering the vaccine to exposed employees…
Consolidated Rail Corporation
Railroad preemption issue remanded for evidence
Consolidated Rail Corporation moved to dismiss OSHA citations arising from railroad-bridge repair and maintenance work, arguing that Federal Railroad Administration regulation preempted OSHA under section 4(b)(1) of the OSH Act. The Commission held that the FRA's policy statement did not displace…
L.E. Myers Company
Four willful power-line violations affirmed for $30,000
L.E. Myers Company was replacing utility poles and lines near Napoleon, Ohio, while 12,470-volt lines remained energized. An apprentice was fatally electrocuted when a boom or its conductive steel cable contacted or approached an energized line while he handled the cable from the ground. The…
R.E. Reynolds, Inc.
Masonry-site violations affirmed with reduced cord penalty
R.E. Reynolds was the masonry subcontractor on a hotel and pool-building project at Disney World in Florida. The judge affirmed four serious items involving an extension cord exposed to vehicle damage, an unguarded pit, uncapped reinforcing steel, and the absence of a limited access zone around a…
Western Plains Construction
Unprotected trench violation affirmed
Western Plains Construction was installing storm sewer pipe in a trench in Tulsa, Oklahoma. OSHA found the south end of the trench about 9 feet 6 inches deep with vertical, unprotected walls. The company argued that the condition resulted from unpreventable misconduct by its superintendent, but the…
Metro Power, d/b/a Gibson Electric
Floor-opening item affirmed, breaker-panel item vacated
Metro Power, doing business as Gibson Electric, was the electrical subcontractor on a youth facility construction project in Georgia. The judge affirmed a ground-fault circuit interrupter violation because the outlet serving drink and ice machines did not have functioning protection, but classified…
Stone Container Corp.
Boiler-area protective equipment citation vacated
Stone Container operated a paper and linerboard mill with a black liquor recovery boiler in Montana. A boiler explosion burned three employees, and one employee later died from the injuries. OSHA cited the company for not requiring protective clothing and self-contained respirators during boiler…
Dempsey Darcy Oldsmobile
Penalties reduced for good faith and inspection history
Dempsey D'Arcy Oldsmobile purchased the assets of a dealership after OSHA had cited the prior owner. OSHA later cited the new company for conditions that had not been corrected, and the parties settled the violations but disputed the penalty amounts. The judge found that the company deserved…
Custom Services
Settlement approved with $975 in penalties
OSHA issued Custom Services a serious citation containing several construction safety items. At the hearing, the parties reached a settlement and placed its terms on the record. The judge adopted the agreement, which withdrew one scaffold item and affirmed the remaining listed violations. The order…
Vogel Brothers
Four serious construction violations affirmed, two vacated
Vogel Brothers Building Company was the general contractor on a wastewater administration building project in Tampa, Florida. The judge affirmed serious violations involving an unavailable fire extinguisher at a diesel fueling area, unguarded floor edges, an unbarricaded crane swing radius, and…
Earl A. Eichline Enterprises, Inc.
Trench cave-in protection violation affirmed, two other items vacated
Earl A. Eichline Enterprises was repairing a water line valve in an excavation in New Berlin, Wisconsin. OSHA cited the company for inadequate cave-in protection, no safe means of exit, and failure to provide high-visibility garments near traffic. The judge affirmed the repeated cave-in protection…
Harris Masonry, Inc.
Unguarded scaffold violation affirmed
Harris Masonry performed masonry work at a Pennsylvania middle school construction site. OSHA observed three employees on scaffolds about 15 feet high without guardrails. The company argued that the employees were erecting the scaffolds, but the judge credited evidence that the scaffold height did…
Fuellgraf Electric Co.
Platform-training item affirmed, debris item vacated
Fuellgraf Electric Company was an electrical contractor at an elementary school construction site in Pennsylvania. OSHA alleged that an employee operating a self-elevating platform lacked proper training and that debris in a cafeteria created a tripping hazard. The judge affirmed the platform item…
Abbott Contractors, Inc.
Two willful trench cave-in violations affirmed, penalty reduced to $40,000
Abbott Contractors, Inc. installs water mains and was working in Aurora, Illinois. In July and August 1991, OSHA inspected two of its trenching worksites. Before the hearing the parties settled all items except two willful excavation items, which alleged that employees worked in trenches about 9 to…
Waste Processing Equipment, Inc.
Eleven of twelve serious items affirmed, one vacated, penalty cut to $4,600
Waste Processing Equipment, Inc. runs a manufacturing plant in Rainsville, Alabama, with about 28 employees making paper balers and other waste-handling equipment. A September 1991 OSHA inspection led to a serious citation with 12 items and a proposed penalty of $12,500, plus an "other" citation…
Magor Plumbing & Heating Co.
Citations vacated because OSHA did not prove Magor employed the workers
Magor Plumbing & Heating was cited in August 1991 for alleged serious and nonserious violations found during an OSHA inspection of a church under construction in Bayside, New York, with $7,650 in proposed penalties on the serious citation. The only contested issue was whether Magor was the employer…
Mautz & Oren, Inc.
EAJA fee request denied after citation withdrawal
Mautz & Oren was cited for a repeat electrical violation after OSHA found that its construction site used neither ground-fault circuit interrupters nor an assured equipment grounding conductor program. The Secretary later withdrew the citation during Commission review, making Mautz the prevailing…
Berkman Brothers, Inc.
Settlement requires fall protection and a $280 penalty
Berkman Brothers operated an electroplating facility where employees worked on walkways beside tanks containing heated and corrosive chemicals. OSHA cited the company for failing to guard employees against falls into the tanks or contact with their contents. In a settlement during Commission…
Consolidated Construction, Inc.
Limited EAJA fee award ordered for excavation defense
OSHA cited Consolidated Construction over the slopes of a 35-foot-deep excavation used to repair an underground Air Force fuel tank, but an ALJ vacated both excavation items after crediting the company's expert evidence. Consolidated then sought more than $50,000 in fees and expenses under the…
W. Kramer Associates
OSHA-poster citation vacated, other items settled
W. Kramer Associates is a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning contractor. OSHA inspected its worksite at the Northeastern Pennsylvania Veterans Home construction project in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and issued a serious citation and a second citation with two other-than-serious items, with…
Baker Masonry, Inc.
Stairway and balcony guardrail citations vacated for unproven employee exposure
Baker Masonry, Inc. was a masonry subcontractor at the construction of the Radisson Hotel in Savannah, Georgia. A fatal fall in the hotel's atrium triggered an OSHA investigation, and the compliance officer expanded the inspection to the subcontractors. OSHA cited Baker for a serious violation, for…
National Cleaning Contractors, Inc.
Window-washing scaffold fall-protection citation affirmed, $1,875 penalty
National Cleaning Contractors, Inc. is a window cleaning company. During an August 1991 inspection at the BP Building in Cleveland, Ohio, prompted by an imminent-danger complaint, OSHA compliance officers watched a three-person crew washing windows from a two-point suspension scaffold at heights up…
Pardy Construction Corporation
Late notice of contest dismissed, citations affirmed as final
Pardy Construction Corporation is a construction company based in Corona, New York. OSHA issued it a serious citation and an other-than-serious citation on March 11, 1992. The company filed its notice of contest by a letter dated May 13, 1992, long after the deadline. The Secretary moved to dismiss…
Marble Works, Inc.
Consolidated penalty contest resolved by settlement, $5,780 total
Marble Works, Inc. operates a manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama. OSHA conducted two separate safety and health inspections and issued citations on February 21, 1992 and March 24, 1992, each alleging serious and other-than-serious violations. Marble Works contested only the proposed…
Mustang Plus
Post-hearing settlement approved, combined $2,000 penalty
Mustang Plus is a Dallas, Texas employer. After an OSHA inspection of its workplace, the Secretary issued a serious citation with eight items and a non-serious citation with three items. At the close of a hearing held on November 6, 1992, the parties reached a settlement resolving all issues. Under…
Accu-Rite Machine Co.
All four hot-work, fall-protection, and hazard-communication citations affirmed, $6,000 penalty
Accu-Rite Machine Co. operates an industrial machine shop in Blythe, Georgia. On May 26, 1991, over the Memorial Day weekend, its employees were at the Ringier America printing plant in Evans, Georgia, removing and replacing an aftercooler unit. To free bolts, they used an oxygen-acetylene cutting…
Caterpillar, Inc. et al.
Separate recordkeeping violations affirmed, but willful classification vacated
OSHA cited Caterpillar for 170 failures to record occupational injuries and illnesses on its 1986 OSHA 200 log at an Illinois facility. The Commission held that 167 injuries and illnesses were recordable under 29 C.F.R. § 1904.2(a), rejecting Caterpillar's vagueness and compliance defenses. It also…
Daak Corporation
Default order remanded for good-cause determination
Daak Corporation did not appear for its scheduled hearing, and the ALJ granted the Secretary a default judgment. After hearing the Secretary's evidence, the judge affirmed 14 construction citations and assessed $7,200 in total penalties. Daak's vice president then petitioned for review and made…
Johnson Controls, Inc.
Elevated blood-lead recordkeeping violation reduced to other-than-serious
OSHA cited Johnson Controls after finding 27 employee blood-lead test results above 50 micrograms per 100 grams of whole blood that were not entered on the OSHA 200 logs at its Geneva, Illinois battery plant. The Commission held that the uncorrected omissions were timely cited because OSHA issued…
Johnson Controls, Inc.
Elevated blood-lead level held recordable
OSHA cited Johnson Controls for removing an employee's elevated blood-lead result from the OSHA 200 log at its Milwaukee battery plant. The Commission held that the citation was timely because the inaccurate record remained uncorrected during the five-year retention period and OSHA cited within six…
General Dynamics Corp., Electric Boat Div., Quonset Point Facility
Recordkeeping citations revived and remanded
OSHA cited General Dynamics' Quonset Point shipbuilding facility for alleged inaccuracies and omissions in required injury and illness records. An administrative law judge vacated the citations as untimely under the OSH Act's six-month limitations period. The Commission reversed, holding that the…
McGraw Construction Co.
Showers required for coke-oven contamination
McGraw Construction employees performed welding work in the regulated area of an operating coke oven battery at an Armco steel facility. Their clothing and bodies were exposed to ash, soot, grease, tar, coal dust, and other potentially carcinogenic contaminants, but McGraw provided only a water…
Cargill, Inc.
Unsecured marine-terminal ladder citation affirmed
OSHA cited Cargill after finding an extension ladder leaning against a truck-receiving scale at its Portland marine terminal. The ladder had slip-resistant feet, but its top could move seven inches to one side and neither end was secured. The Commission held that 29 C.F.R. § 1917.119(f)(9) clearly…
Edward Joy Co.
Reversed-polarity violation reclassified as repeat
OSHA found a 50-foot extension cord connected to a drill at Edward Joy Company's apartment rehabilitation project in Syracuse, New York. The cord's hot and neutral wires were reversed, leaving current in the drill even when its switch was off. The administrative law judge affirmed the violation of…
DEC-TAM Corporation
Asbestos violations and penalties modified
OSHA inspected DEC-TAM Corporation's asbestos-removal work aboard a ferry in Newport, Rhode Island. The Commission reviewed several findings involving delayed production of exposure records, exposure monitoring, regulated-area controls, respirators, protective clothing, and employee notification…
Clean Harbors of Kingston, Inc.
Confined-space communication case settled
OSHA cited Clean Harbors under the general duty clause after employees entered a pump room to remove a diesel-fuel, Biosolve, and water mixture. The alleged hazard was delayed rescue because half-face respirators impaired voice communication between an entrant and standby personnel. An…
John J. Kirlin, Inc.
Serious scissor-lift guarding citation vacated, one electrical-cord item affirmed at no penalty
John J. Kirlin, Inc. is a plumbing contractor. While it was working on the renovation and construction of the Postal Square retail and office complex in Washington, D.C., OSHA inspected the worksite and issued one serious citation and one other-than-serious citation. The serious citation, with a…
Law Brothers Contracting Corp.
Renovation contractor loses on all four contested saw, stairway, and grounding citations, $3,095 penalty upheld
Law Brothers Contracting Corporation was a general contractor performing renovation work on buildings in Syracuse, New York. After an April 1991 OSHA inspection, it received one serious citation and one repeat citation covering five alleged violations, with $3,095 in total proposed penalties…
Flint Engineering & Construction Co.
Controlling contractor liable for trench hazards
Flint Engineering opened an approximately 11-foot-deep pipeline trench with vertical, unprotected walls and a large spoil bank at its edge. The administrative law judge found that the workers seen in the trench were not Flint employees, but that Flint created and controlled the hazardous…
CBI Services, Inc.
Confined-space welding attendant required
CBI Services manufactured steel-plated submarine hull sections at its Alabama facility. OSHA observed a welder enter a hull section through restricted openings and work about nine feet below the entry point without an attendant stationed outside. The Commission held that the welding standard's…
Pressure Concrete Construction Co.
Storm-sewer hazard training violation affirmed
Pressure Concrete repaired an aging storm-sewer system in Montgomery, Alabama. During a rainstorm, water rapidly entered the tunnel through lateral lines, and an employee who reached the bottom of a manhole could not be rescued before he drowned. The Commission held that the company failed to train…
Ford Development Corporation
Hazard communication and trench rulings modified
OSHA inspected Ford Development after a trench wall shifted and trapped an employee's foot during drainage-pipe work in Ohio. The Commission declined to dismiss the case because the Secretary transmitted Ford's notice of contest seven days late through an inadvertent clerical error, with no…
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.