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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General Dynamics Land Systems Division, Inc.
Freon confined-space case remanded for fact-finding
General Dynamics employees entered confined spaces where trichlorotrifluoroethane, known as freon, could cause poisoning or asphyxiation. An earlier decision vacated the general duty clause citation because an exposure-limit standard addressed the chemical. The D.C. Circuit held that the standard…
Lee Roy Westbrook Construction Company, Inc.
Shaft-opening citation affirmed with a $50 penalty
Westbrook employees pulled lumber through openings in an elevator shaft while exposed to a 13-foot fall onto a debris-covered concrete floor. The general contractor was contractually responsible for safety facilities, but Westbrook's employees had the carpentry skills and materials needed to cover…
Lee Roy Westbrook Construction Company
Floor-opening citation affirmed with a reduced penalty
Westbrook was a concrete-framing subcontractor whose employees used a ladder beside an uncovered elevator shaft opening. A fall through the opening would have been about 40 feet. Westbrook argued that the general contractor was contractually responsible for covering the opening, but the Commission…
Brand Scaffold Services, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA's citation was received by Brand Scaffold Services on June 6, 1988, but the company did not submit its notice of contest until late September. The judge dismissed the contest because it was not filed within the statutory 15-working-day period and affirmed the serious citation. Brand later…
Burlington Northern Railroad Company
Fatal trench case remanded for the railroad agency's views
A trench beside Burlington Northern's tracks collapsed while employees installed a sewer line, killing one employee. The judge affirmed several serious trenching items, but Burlington Northern argued that Federal Railroad Administration regulation displaced OSHA's authority. The Commission found…
Salem-Gravure, Division of World Color Press, Inc.
Trade-secret discovery dispute remanded
The Secretary sought to have a private expert inspect Salem-Gravure's plant during discovery. The Commission initially refused because of trade-secret concerns, and the citation was later dismissed when the Secretary declined to seek a federal court order. The D.C. Circuit set aside the dismissal…
Cleveland Marble Mosaic Company
Default penalty corrected to $1,260
OSHA issued three serious items and one nonserious item, initially proposing $1,800 in penalties. The Secretary later withdrew one serious item and its $540 penalty. Cleveland Marble did not answer the complaint or oppose the Secretary's default motion, and the judge mistakenly affirmed all items…
Stroudsburg Dyeing & Finishing Company
Late failure-to-abate contest dismissed
Stroudsburg received a failure-to-abate notice on May 31, 1988, but did not mail its contest until July 28, after the 15-working-day deadline. The company said an employee who was not authorized to handle OSHA matters received the notice and delayed forwarding it. The Commission found that OSHA…
North Berry Concrete Corporation
Rebar impalement citation reinstated
North Berry employees passed within one or two feet of a floor opening while traveling to work areas in a 68-story building. Unprotected reinforcing bars rose from the floor below, creating an impalement hazard if an employee fell through the opening. The judge vacated the item because the…
Asbestos Abatement Consultation & Engineering
Remaining asbestos-monitoring items withdrawn
An asbestos-monitoring consultant was cited for three alleged failures to follow mandatory sampling and analysis procedures, with $8,000 initially proposed. The judge vacated the pump-calibration sub-item because the appendix did not give fair notice that a primary calibration device was required…
Roy Kay, Inc.
Need for more investigation does not extend contest deadline
Roy Kay missed the 15-working-day deadline while trying to contact employees and investigate OSHA's allegations during the summer vacation season. The company also said it had never been cited before and had no legal department, so it did not appreciate the deadline's significance. The citation and…
Louisiana-Pacific Corporation
Management transition does not excuse late contest
Louisiana-Pacific received OSHA citations on June 13, 1986, but did not file a notice of contest until August 29. The company said the citations were overlooked during a management transition and the incoming manager did not learn of them until OSHA requested payment. The Commission held that it…
Quantum Chemical Corporation, Emery Division
Hot-water tank citation withdrawn
A Quantum Chemical employee suffered serious burns when heated water erupted from an uncovered tank as he operated a valve beneath it. OSHA cited the company for failing to provide protective shields or barriers. The judge found the personal protective equipment standard applicable, affirmed the…
Williams Enterprises of Georgia
Steel-erection safety-net item reinstated
Williams was the steel-erection subcontractor on a high-rise project where employees worked on perimeter beams and columns without exterior fall protection. The Commission had previously vacated the safety-net item after concluding that steel-erection rules displaced the general construction…
Barretto Granite Corporation
Late contest dismissed after court reversal
Barretto orally disputed OSHA's citations at an informal conference within the contest period but did not send written confirmation until after the deadline. The Commission had previously treated the oral dispute as a valid contest and later affirmed vacatur when the Secretary declined to prosecute…
Mosser Construction, Inc.
Construction citation settlement approved without penalties
OSHA cited Mosser Construction for serious, repeat, and other-than-serious conditions and initially proposed $2,300. The judge vacated the flammable-liquid, welding-cylinder, and aerial-lift items, while affirming an electrical grounding item without a penalty. In settlement, the Secretary withdrew…
Field & Associates, Inc.
Ladder citation settlement approved for $700
Field & Associates contested a serious citation and a repeat citation involving a ladder. The company represented that it had abated the conditions by taking the ladder out of use. It agreed to withdraw its contest and pay $700 to resolve all disputed matters without admitting fault or liability…
National Steel & Shipbuilding Company
Fatal electrical-contact citation withdrawn
National Steel used a temporary electrical load tank, called a salt box, while testing a ship's generators. An electrician entered the unlocked box and was killed by contact with an energized 440-volt circuit. The judge found that supervisors failed to communicate that the box remained energized or…
Monsanto Company
Styrene label citation withdrawn under settlement
OSHA cited Monsanto's hazard communication materials for styrene monomer, inhibited, without proposing a penalty. The judge affirmed portions of the label-warning item and a material safety data sheet item. In settlement, Monsanto agreed to add warnings that excessive overexposure can affect the…
Emery Chemicals, Division of National Distillers & Chemical Corporation
Hazard communication settlement approved
OSHA cited Emery Chemicals for alleged deficiencies in labels and material safety data sheets for several specialty chemical products. The judge held that labels for four corrosive products lacked appropriate target-organ warnings and affirmed that item as other-than-serious. The judge found that…
Stewart-Warner Corporation
Occupational-noise settlement approved
Stewart-Warner employees in three manufacturing departments were exposed to excessive noise from punch presses, screw machines, and air-ejection systems. The company had previously been cited for the same noise standard at the same plant. The judge found feasible engineering controls, affirmed the…
Union Carbide Corporation, Linde Division
Acetylene label citation withdrawn and vacated
OSHA cited Union Carbide over hazard communication requirements for acetylene shipped to manufacturing customers. The judge vacated an item concerning written hazard-determination procedures but affirmed an other-than-serious item because the acetylene label did not warn that the gas could displace…
Green Duck Corporation
Machine-safety settlement reduces penalties to $660
Green Duck, a novelty-products manufacturer, was cited for machine guarding, an unguarded belt drive, a repeat power-press violation, posting, and hazard communication conditions. OSHA initially proposed $1,730, and the judge assessed $1,600. In settlement, one machine-guarding sub-item was…
Marine Terminals Corporation
Longshore fall-protection settlement approved
Marine Terminals employees removed twist locks while working on top of stacked shipping containers aboard a vessel. Two employees worked 24 to 34 feet above the deck without tying off, although they wore harnesses. The judge found that the company had not effectively communicated, supervised, or…
Intercontinental Chemical Corporation
Hazard communication cases closed by settlement and withdrawal
Intercontinental Chemical faced consolidated hazard communication cases involving material safety data sheets, labels, and trade-secret ingredient disclosures. The parties settled all items in docket 86-0388, with the other-than-serious citation affirmed without penalties. In docket 86-0535, the…
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Group, Inc.
PCB protective-equipment citations withdrawn
Pratt & Whitney employees at two plants contacted machine oil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, and many did not use personal protective equipment. OSHA alleged that this exposure violated the general protective-equipment standard. The judge found that the Secretary had not proved that…
General Motors Corporation, Arlington Plant
Exposure-record item settled and posting item vacated
Employees near a solvent degreaser were exposed to toxic chemicals, but General Motors had not informed them of their right to access exposure-monitoring records and the material safety data sheet. The judge affirmed that information item as nonserious. A second item alleged that the…
Williams Enterprises, Inc.
Willful steel-erection violations affirmed after fatal collapse
Williams erected structural steel for a school addition where part of the framework collapsed, killing one employee and injuring two others. The judge excluded the company's proposed expert witness and affirmed five willful steel-erection items. The Commission held that excluding the witness was…
Midwest Steel Erection, Inc.
Steel-erection settlement approved with remaining rulings final
Three OSHA inspections of Midwest's structural-steel work produced serious, willful, repeat, and other-than-serious citations with $23,200 proposed. The judge affirmed several fall-protection and ladder items, reduced one willful item to serious, affirmed the repeat and other-than-serious…
Collier-Keyworth Company
Impulse-noise case remanded for evidence on the standard's intent
Collier-Keyworth manufactured office-chair mechanisms using power presses and lathes that produced high noise levels. The Commission initially held that the permissible-noise table did not cover impulse noise and planned to vacate related citation items unless the Secretary rebutted historical…
Byco-MCS Division of Bywater Sales & Service, and Its Successors
Default order remanded for good-cause review
Byco contested serious and other-than-serious citations but did not answer the Secretary's complaint. It also failed to respond to the judge's show-cause order, so the judge dismissed the contest, affirmed all citation items, and assessed the proposed penalties by default. A new owner then sent an…
Wes Jones & Son Inc.
Default remanded after employer negotiated with OSHA instead of the Commission
Wes Jones contested two serious construction citations but did not certify employee notice or answer the Secretary's complaint. The company communicated with OSHA's attorney while settlement discussions were underway, but it did not respond to the Commission or the judge's order. The judge…
Delo Screw Products Company
Warrant-suppression ruling vacated and remanded
OSHA obtained a warrant for a plant-wide inspection after Delo refused an inspection based on an employee complaint about methylene chloride vapors. The inspection produced citations unrelated to the complaint, and the judge suppressed the evidence and vacated all items. The Commission held that…
Alabama Power Company
Overturning coal-truck citation vacated
An Alabama Power laboratory helper was killed when a coal truck overturned while dumping at the company's generating plant. OSHA alleged that the company had not adequately protected employees who sampled delivered coal. The Commission found that Alabama Power had sufficiently specific rules…
Williams Enterprises, Inc.
Four citation items and $2,300 penalty became final
Williams Enterprises was the steel-erection contractor for a multistory building in Virginia. OSHA cited perimeter fall protection, an improperly positioned and unsecured ladder, an unbarricaded crane swing radius, missing perimeter railings, and gaps in temporary flooring. The judge vacated the…
Skyline Crane Service, Inc.
Steel-erection citations and $780 penalty became final
Skyline Crane Service erected structural steel at a building project where employees worked about 60 feet above the ground. OSHA cited inadequate fall protection, missing perimeter nets, uncovered or unguarded floor openings, and the absence of immediately available fire-extinguishing equipment…
Skyline Crane Service, Inc.
Review of perimeter-net citation vacated
The judge vacated a citation alleging that Skyline failed to provide perimeter nets during structural steel erection. Review focused on whether Skyline had fair notice in 1980 that the general construction safety-net standard applied in addition to the steel-erection rules. Later court decisions…
Formwork Services Inc.
Falling-material citation withdrawn and remaining rulings became final
Formwork Services was a concrete-forming subcontractor on an Atlanta high-rise project where falling lumber struck another contractor's employee, who then fell to his death. The judge found a serious general-duty-clause violation for inadequate protection against falling materials, but reduced its…
Kaspar Wire Works, Inc.
Power-press case remanded for unresolved defenses
Kaspar Wire Works challenged citations arising from an OSHA inspection of its manufacturing plant. The judge affirmed a serious item alleging that a mechanical power press was operated without using its point-of-operation protection and assessed $160. He also affirmed, without a penalty, an item…
All Purpose Crane, Inc.
Broken-wire citation vacated for insufficient proof
All Purpose Crane operated a crane whose boom rope broke and whose boom collapsed at a Florida construction site, killing three workers. OSHA cited the company for several crane, wire-rope, recordkeeping, and fire-extinguisher conditions. The judge affirmed serious items for overloading the crane…
Keco Industries, Inc.
Record-access and blasting-respirator violations affirmed
Keco Industries manufactured military and aerospace equipment and performed abrasive blasting in an enclosed facility at its Ohio plant. The Commission affirmed a willful record-access violation because Keco refused repeated requests for prior injury and illness logs even after OSHA presented an…
Equitable Shipyards, Inc.
Welding-fume items vacated for unreliable sampling
Equitable Shipyards built ships and barges at a Louisiana facility where OSHA sampled welders' exposure to welding fumes. OSHA attached sampling cassettes to the workers' shirt collars, but its own industrial-hygiene guidance and other technical authorities called for placing welding-fume cassettes…
J.W. Bill Christie, Inc.
Confined-space citations settled for $240
J.W. Bill Christie repaired natural-gas pipelines and was cited after a gas release in a below-ground manhole overcame two employees, who died. OSHA alleged that employees lacked adequate confined-space hazard instruction, training, and respiratory protection. The judge affirmed two serious…
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.
Carbon-monoxide case resolved by settlement
A failed water seal released a large amount of carbon monoxide in and around Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel's boiler house, injuring ten company employees and five subcontractor employees. The judge found serious and willful violations involving inspection and alarm precautions, emergency planning…
Harrison Furniture Manufacturing Company
Commission approves withdrawal of all citations
OSHA cited Harrison Furniture Manufacturing Company for numerous conditions at its Arkansas furniture plant after an inspection conducted under a warrant. The earlier litigation addressed whether evidence from a plant-wide inspection should be suppressed when the warrant application was based on…
Emerson Electric Company, Electronics & Space Division
Injury-record citation vacated
During an employee-complaint inspection, Emerson Electric allowed OSHA to inspect the stated complaint items but refused access to its injury and illness forms without a warrant or administrative subpoena. OSHA used neither form of legal process and issued a no-penalty citation for refusing the…
A.B. Chance Company
Record-access citation vacated for lack of legal process
A.B. Chance consented to an OSHA inspection limited to employee-complaint items but refused to provide its OSHA injury and illness forms without a warrant. OSHA did not obtain a warrant or issue an administrative subpoena and instead cited the company for denying access to the records. The judge…
Kings Island, Division of Taft Broadcasting Company
Warrantless injury-record citation vacated
OSHA sought three years of Kings Island's injury and illness logs during an inspection prompted by a complaint about theatrical fog. Kings Island offered access limited to the complaint but refused the broader records request unless OSHA obtained a warrant or used other legal process. OSHA instead…
DeKalb Forge Company
Hearing-conservation and record-access citations affirmed
DeKalb Forge stipulated that it had not complied with seven hearing-conservation provisions and two employee-record-access provisions at its Illinois forging shop. The judge vacated the citations after relying on a court panel decision that invalidated the hearing-conservation amendment, but the…
Heaton Erecting, Inc.
Mobile-scaffold citation items vacated
OSHA cited Heaton Erecting after an employee fell about 40 feet to his death while using a mobile scaffold near a building perimeter. The citation alleged missing guardrails and failure to plank the scaffold's full width. The judge vacated both items, finding that the guardrail rule did not apply…
Morrison-Knudsen, Inc.
Tunnel hearing-protection item vacated
Morrison-Knudsen constructed tunnels for the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant and supplied hearing protection to employees exposed to high noise levels. OSHA cited the company after dosimeters showed excessive cumulative noise doses and a compliance officer briefly observed two locomotive operators…
D.H. Shelton and Associates, Inc.
Electrical and fire citations settled for $1
D.H. Shelton, a plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning subcontractor, was cited at an El Paso construction project. The judge affirmed a serious item for failing to use a ground-fault circuit interrupter or an assured equipment-grounding program, plus other-than-serious items for an ungrounded…
Jones Washington Stevedoring Co.
Fall-protection citation withdrawn
Jones Washington Stevedoring employees worked without fall protection on containers stacked 32 feet above a barge deck. The judge found that safety nets were infeasible but that safety belts tied to temporary container anchor points could provide equal protection. He affirmed the serious…
Central Wisconsin Steel Building Erectors, Inc.
Roof fall-protection citation vacated
Central Wisconsin employees installed insulation and metal roof decking on a single-story building 16 to 21 feet above the ground without fall-protection equipment. The judge affirmed a serious personal-protective-equipment citation and assessed $300. The Commission later held that the controlling…
Cleveland Consolidated, Inc.
Electrical citations merged and penalty reduced to $100
Cleveland Consolidated electricians replaced a damaged cable in a narrow, dark corridor while exposed lugs in the same switchbox remained energized at 460 volts or more. An explosion occurred while an employee worked within reach of the energized parts, setting his beard and clothes on fire. The…
The Great Lakes Construction Co.
Dump-truck brake citation withdrawn
A loaded Great Lakes Construction dump truck could not stop while descending a steep grade and was driven into a ditch after narrowly missing a bulldozer. The judge found that both rear brakes were inoperative, the foreman knew the brakes were bad, and the service-brake system could not stop the…
LTV Steel Company
Partial ruling remanded for reconsolidation
An OSHRC judge granted LTV Steel partial summary judgment and vacated one floor-opening item before resolving the other three contested items. The Commission held that the ruling reached it prematurely because the judge had not found good cause to sever the item and a single Commission member's…
Lauhoff Grain Company
Rail-yard protection violation affirmed
Lauhoff operated a private rail switchyard while contractors performed construction near an active spur track. During a blind push, a Lauhoff engine backed six hopper cars into a parked forklift, crushing a contractor's employee between the forklift and a crane and killing him. The Commission held…
Adams Steel Erection, Inc.
Perimeter and safety-net items affirmed, ladderway item vacated
Adams Steel was the steel-erection subcontractor on a multistory Pittsburgh construction project. The Commission affirmed a perimeter-railing item because decking remained temporary until it was welded into the structure as permanent flooring. It vacated a ladderway-opening item because the…
A.H. Beck Foundation Company, Inc.
Drilling-rig crane citation vacated
A.H. Beck used a modified Northwest Model 41 machine to drill foundation piers and to lift reinforcing steel and casing into the holes. OSHA cited the company for failing to barricade the machine's rotating swing radius under the construction crane standard. The judge treated the machine as a crane…
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.