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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Granger Contracting Co., Inc.
Repeated guardrail violation and $950 penalty affirmed
Granger Contracting was the general contractor on a Massachusetts construction project where three floor perimeters had only a top rail or single wire rope instead of complete guardrails. The company did not dispute the violation but challenged its repeated classification and $950 penalty. The…
White Plains Iron Works, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail citation and $1,400 penalty vacated
The judge affirmed a repeated-serious citation alleging that White Plains Iron Works failed to install perimeter guarding on a flat roof. After that ruling, the Commission held in another case that the cited open-sided-floor standard did not apply to flat roofs. Because that precedent controlled…
Midway Industrial Contractors, Inc.
Dismissal for a late complaint set aside and remanded where no prejudice was shown
This is a short Commission order. Midway Industrial Contractors moved to dismiss the Secretary's complaint on the ground that it was filed late, and Administrative Law Judge Harris granted the motion, which was then unopposed, finding that the complaint had not been filed within the 20-day period…
Womack Construction Co., Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissal affirmed; delivery to the corporate office is valid service
Womack Construction was cited for a serious-willful violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.651(c) with a proposed $5,000 penalty. OSHA sent the citation by certified mail to the company's corporate headquarters, where a bookkeeper received it on August 22, 1975. An employer has 15 working days to contest a…
Gelco Builders, Inc.
Rebar-impalement violation and $75 penalty affirmed
Gelco employees used a 40-foot ladder positioned over protruding reinforcing steel to reach the second floor of a construction project. The judge vacated the impalement citation because the employees were installing perimeter guards rather than performing concrete work and because he did not…
Packerland Packing Co. of Texas, Inc.
Welding-fire violations and $600 penalty affirmed
Packerland employees used an oxy-acetylene torch to cut a cooler wall containing combustible polyurethane insulation. A flash fire occurred, and a welder was later found deceased after the parties stipulated that he ran into a structural support; the record did not establish the exact cause of…
Truland Corporation
Guardrail violation conditionally affirmed with $100 penalty
Truland was an electrical subcontractor whose employees worked within three feet of a second-floor edge protected only by a sagging wire rope. The judge found a serious guardrail violation, allowed OSHA to amend the original nonserious classification before the hearing, and assessed $100 instead of…
L. H. Land Painting Company, Inc.
Hollow-tread stair violation conditionally affirmed
A working foreman for L. H. Land Painting used an interior stairway whose hollow metal pan treads had not been filled with concrete or another solid material. The company argued that another contractor controlled the stairway, that it lacked knowledge, and that an exception for stairs under…
World Color Press, Inc., d/b/a Crossroads Press
Divided Commission affirms dismissal of a noise citation over a trade-secret discovery dispute
World Color Press prints magazines at a plant in Effingham, Illinois. After an inspection, OSHA issued a nonserious citation under 29 C.F.R. § 1910.95(b)(1) and (b)(3) for excessive noise and an inadequate hearing conservation program, and the Secretary later pursued only the engineering-controls…
KLI, Inc.
Machine-noise case remanded for economic-feasibility evidence
KLI manufactured screw-machine products and was cited for failing to use feasible controls to reduce noise from thirteen Davenport machines. A silencer substantially reduced noise on one machine, but KLI said it also caused productivity losses and safety problems. The judge treated economic…
Jensen Construction Co.
Runway and crane-barricade violations affirmed
Jensen employees crossed an unguarded plank suspended over bridge formwork, and employees also had access to the unbarricaded swing radius of an operating crane. The Commission treated the plank as a runway because employees used it as a passageway, even though it was not designed for that purpose…
Marinas of the Future, Inc.
Housekeeping item vacated and grinder violation affirmed
Marinas of the Future operated a small boatyard and used a converted barge as a workshop. After a severe storm, an employee performing extensive repairs had wires, tools, and materials spread across the floor, but the Commission found no evidence that the work area contained more material than…
Williams Construction Company
Excavation penalty reduced to $750
Williams Construction installed underground water and sewer lines in a roughly 30-foot-wide, 14-foot-deep excavation. The upper soil was soft and unstable, wet conditions reduced stability, and a nearby backhoe added vibration and load pressure. Two employees worked below a vertical north wall that…
Sletten Construction Co.
Bridge-platform fall-protection violations affirmed
Sletten employees worked on a bridge cofferdam platform about 12 feet above the Yellowstone River with an unguarded edge and an uncovered opening. Another employee worked 18 feet above the ground without using a provided safety belt. The Commission rejected impossibility because guardrails could…
Life Science Products Company; Virgil A. Hundtofte and W. P. Moore
Toxic-exposure citations and personal liability affirmed
Life Science Products manufactured the pesticide Kepone from HCP and exposed employees to toxic substances without adequate engineering controls or personal protective equipment. Employees were also allowed to eat, drink, and store food in contaminated work areas. The four citations included two…
Donovan Electric Company
Elevator-opening violation conditionally affirmed
Donovan Electric employees passed within three to five feet of elevator openings whose railings lacked required midrails, with a maximum fall distance of 17 feet. The general contractor controlled the guardrails, while Donovan warned employees at safety meetings to stay away from openings…
Dravo Corporation
Cable and snowy-deck violations left in place
Dravo built and repaired riverboats and barges. Although cable splice strands were blunted, loose rusty wrapping wires still had jagged edges that had pinched workers' hands and caught their clothing, so the Commission affirmed that violation and a $60 penalty. Snow also remained on barge decks…
National Steel & Shipbuilding Company
Judge's decision affirmed without Commission review
The Commission had directed review after the Secretary petitioned to challenge the judge's decision. The Secretary later withdrew that petition, and the employer had not filed any exception of its own. With no party continuing to dispute the judge's disposition, the Commission declined substantive…
Charles H. Tompkins
Scaffold access deemed de minimis and crane item vacated
Employees building an upper work platform climbed scaffold-buck rungs spaced 18 to 20 inches apart instead of using a ladder with 12-inch rung spacing. The Commission held that the scaffold bucks were not equivalent safe access, but the added spacing did not appreciably reduce climbing safety. It…
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company; Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company
OSHA jurisdiction restored
The railroads moved to dismiss OSHA citations on the ground that the Federal Railroad Administration had begun rulemaking about the same working conditions. The judge held that an advance notice of proposed rulemaking was enough to displace OSHA jurisdiction under section 4(b)(1) of the Act. The…
Advance Pipeline, Inc.
Trench violations and $1,080 penalties affirmed
Advance Pipeline installed a water main in soft, unstable soil without shoring, sloping, bracing, or other support. Testimony established that an employee worked in a trench section about seven feet deep, and the Commission noted that the standard applied at five feet or more. It also affirmed…
PPG Industries, Inc.
Ledge fall-protection violation and $500 penalty affirmed
Three PPG employees climbed outside guardrails to take measurements while working on a narrow ledge about 10 to 15 feet above a concrete deck with lumber and sawhorses below. Safety belts were available but were not tied off. The judge vacated the citation because he discounted the compliance…
Fleming Foods of Nebraska, Inc.
Warehouse head-protection violation affirmed
Fleming Foods stored grocery products as high as 18 feet in a warehouse where 40 to 50 employees moved goods among the stacks without head protection. Eight falling-merchandise incidents had occurred before the hearing, including one injury, and hard hats could reduce harm from glancing blows or…
Dick Corporation
Rebar and fuel-safety violations affirmed
A rod-buster and foreman worked about 22 feet above a cement floor with protruding reinforcing steel, without safety belts or impalement protection. The Commission held that positioning and securing a rebar column against a wooden form was still placing and tying reinforcing steel under the cited…
Holman Erection Co., Inc.
Steelworker fall-protection penalty reduced to $100
Two Holman steel connectors traversed open beam gridwork about 35 feet above the ground without temporary floors, scaffolds, or safety nets beneath them. They wore safety belts, but the belts were not tied off while they moved along the beams. The Commission held that the specific steel-erection…
Kroger Company
Wire-mesh glove citation remained vacated
OSHA cited Kroger for not providing wire-mesh gloves to butchers working in its retail stores. The judge vacated the nonserious personal-protective-equipment citation, and the Secretary sought Commission review. The Commission held that its earlier Grand Union decision involving a similar…
Marquette Cement Manufacturing Company
General-duty violation and $500 penalty affirmed
A federal court vacated an earlier Commission decision and remanded with instructions concerning the Secretary's proposed general-duty-clause allegation. Following that mandate, the Commission granted the amendment and affirmed a general-duty violation based on the evidence described in the court's…
Joe Richter, Contractor, Inc.
Trench citations and $265 penalties affirmed
Three employees worked in an eight-foot-deep trench beside a heavily traveled road, with a vertical unshored wall, water in the trench, and spoil near an edge. They lacked head protection, and the earth ramps serving as exits were wet, unstable, and partly obstructed. The Commission found that pipe…
Edward B. Fitzpatrick, Jr., Associates, Inc. and Schiavone Construction Co., Inc., a Joint Venture
Barge-access citation remained vacated
Employees used wobbly, unsecured planks along a concrete footing beside the North River to move between a barge gangway and their work area. The judge vacated the barge-access citation because the gangway itself was safe and the planks were a separate work area rather than part of the access ramp…
Harbert Construction Corporation
Life-jacket use violation and $100 penalty affirmed
Two Harbert employees worked from a small skiff in 12 to 14 feet of water while retrieving pipeline floats. The skiff capsized and one employee drowned. Coast Guard-approved life jackets were available under the employees' seats, and the foreman had instructed them to wear the jackets, but he…
Midwest Steel Fabricators, Inc.
Abatement-extension petition denied
Midwest Steel Fabricators sought more time to abate two violations. The judge denied the petition after finding that the company remained out of compliance, had not proved a good-faith abatement effort, and had not shown that factors beyond its reasonable control prevented completion. The company…
Frank Irey, Jr., Inc.
Trench violation reduced from willful to serious
An employee was killed when the side of an unshored, unsloped trench collapsed during underground electrical-conduit work. The trench was about 7.5 feet deep in soft, unstable soil. The company knew trench-protection requirements and a state inspector had recently stopped work at a nearby trench…
Capaldi Brothers Corporation
Trench citation remained vacated after amendment split
OSHA cited Capaldi Brothers under the trench rule for soft or unstable soil. The judge found that OSHA had not proved that soil condition, vacated the citation, and denied a posthearing request to amend to the rule for hard or compact soil. Chairman Cleary would allow the amendment and found the…
Somogyi Construction Co., Inc.
Missing scaffold toeboards affirmed; guardrail impossibility does not excuse toeboards
Somogyi Construction's masons and laborers were building cinder-block walls when OSHA inspected and cited two scaffolds, one 13 feet high and one 24 feet high, for lacking guardrails and toeboards under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.451(a)(4). Administrative Law Judge Richard D. Benedetto vacated most of the…
L. E. Myers Company
Power-line gripping-device citation remained vacated
Linemen used gripping devices called preforms to remove about 3,800 pounds of tension from a static wire. Both devices failed, the wire snapped back, and one employee was struck and fell about 80 feet. The judge vacated the general-duty citation after finding that the method followed industry…
Norkin Plumbing Co., Inc.
Commission remands a late-contest dismissal to weigh whether officials' absence abroad excused the delay
Norkin Plumbing received three OSHA citations with proposed penalties at its headquarters on August 13, 1976, but did not file a notice of contest within the 15 working days the law allows. Its attorney wrote to OSHA on September 23, 1976, asking to contest even though the deadline had passed…
United States Steel Corporation
Conveyor-guarding case remanded
OSHA cited unguarded nip points on a conveyor carrying screened coke dust at U.S. Steel's mill. The judge granted summary judgment to the company, reasoning that the general machine-guarding rule covered processing machines rather than conveyors used only to transport material. The Commission held…
Thermo Tech, Inc.
Fifty-foot scaffold violation and $400 penalty affirmed
Thermo Tech employees installed insulation from 50-foot-high scaffolds that lacked midrails, toeboards, and wire-mesh screens. The Commission unanimously held that the standard expressly required midrails and toeboards and that a fall to the concrete surface made the violation serious. Commissioner…
Georgia Quality Masonry, Inc.
Electrical violations conditionally affirmed
Georgia Quality Masonry employees were exposed to unguarded temporary lights, unsafe temporary-light cords and connections, and inadequately protected extension cords. The masonry subcontractor did not dispute the conditions but argued that it lacked electricians and could not perform electrical…
Crescent Plating Works, Inc.
Contest dismissal set aside and case remanded
The judge had dismissed Crescent Plating Works' notice of contest and affirmed the citations and proposed penalties. The Commission directed that order for review. After both parties jointly moved to vacate it and showed good cause, the Commission granted the motion, set aside the dismissal, and…
Cotter & Company
Safety-toed shoe requirement affirmed for warehouse dock workers despite no industry custom
Cotter & Company is a hardware wholesaler that supplied True Value stores from a warehouse and distribution center in Jonesboro, Georgia, where about 25 dock workers loaded and unloaded roughly 250,000 pounds of freight a day. OSHA cited it under 29 C.F.R. § 1910.132(a) for not requiring…
Emerick Construction, a corporation
Commission reviews only the penalties, drops the bulb-guard fine, and cuts the repeated-violation penalty
Emerick Construction was the general contractor building a hospital addition when two OSHA inspections produced four violations, later consolidated before Administrative Law Judge Thomas J. Donegan. Emerick did not dispute that the violations happened; it argued only that the penalties were too…
Blakeslee-Midwest Prestressed Concrete Co.
Commission affirms a serious fall-protection citation and rejects feasibility, greater-hazard, and evidence challenges
Blakeslee-Midwest was building a seven-story parking garage when an OSHA inspector saw a laborer, Walter Jackson, leaning out over the unguarded third floor, about 30 feet up, trimming the edge of a concrete slab with a saw and wearing no safety belt. The company was cited for a serious violation…
Meilman Food Industries
Meat-trimming platform guardrail violation affirmed
Meilman employees cleaned and trimmed cattle carcasses from three elevated work platforms whose carcass-facing sides had toeboards but no standard railings. The company argued that rails would interfere with meat-processing sanitation and increase cutting hazards. The Commission held that existing…
Williams Enterprises of Georgia, Inc.
Steelworker safety-belt citation remained vacated
Two steelworkers welded from beams 11 and 22 feet above temporary roof-level flooring without safety belts. The company complied with the specific steel-erection rule requiring temporary flooring within two stories or 30 feet. Commissioner Barnako viewed those specific rules as exclusive and would…
Seattle Stevedore Company
Hardhat violations affirmed as nonserious
Seattle Stevedore supplied hardhats, but longshore employees frequently refused to wear them and the company largely stopped using discipline after one 1973 incident. The Commission held that the company had not exhausted less drastic enforcement options, including bargaining with the union and…
Scioto Erectors, Inc.
Divided Commission leaves the ALJ's safety-net vacatur standing as the final order
Scioto Erectors was a steel erection subcontractor on a construction project in Marion, Ohio, where employees put up roof joists and cross-bracing about 60 feet up. The workers wore safety belts and tied off while welding and bolting, but not while moving between spots, stringing welding leads, or…
John W. McGowan
Commission declines sua sponte review, lets the judge's decision stand, and denies a motion for litigation costs
This oil field operator's worksite was inspected, resulting in four citations alleging serious violations with proposed penalties of $700 each. Administrative Law Judge J. Paul Brenton affirmed part of Citation 1 as nonserious, vacated Citations 2 and 3, and affirmed part of Citation 4 as…
Roadway Express, Inc.
Commission modifies the decision to hold that loading-dock supervisors also needed safety-toe shoes
Roadway Express, a trucking company, was cited under 29 C.F.R. § 1910.132(a) for not requiring city drivers, supervisors, and staff to wear safety-toe footwear at a freight terminal. Administrative Law Judge James D. Burroughs affirmed the violation only as to city drivers and vacated it for…
Danco Construction Company
Crane power-line violation and $600 penalty affirmed
Danco used a crane to unload pipe beneath electrical lines without maintaining the required 10-foot clearance. Two employees guiding pipe from the ground were injured when the boom came too close to the line, and one injury was fatal. The company argued that the event resulted from unforeseeable…
The Boeing Company, Wichita Division
Boeing hydraulic-machine hazard and $700 penalty affirmed
Boeing tested a self-designed hydraulic forming machine intended to operate at 100,000 pounds per square inch. At 80,000 psi, the machine failed and propelled a component weighing more than 1,000 pounds over 300 feet, killing two employees. Boeing argued that an unforeseeable defective part caused…
Louisiana-Pacific Corp.
Noise and conveyor violations affirmed
Louisiana-Pacific sold lumber products and operated a chipper and conveyor system at its Portland facility. OSHA cited excessive chipper noise and an unguarded passageway where lumber crossed from live rolls to another conveyor. The Commission found that the citation gave fair notice and that the…
Capitol/Atlanta Construction Company
Fall-protection penalty reduced
Capitol/Atlanta was constructing a building in Georgia when two employees worked on steel purlins 25 to 45 feet above a concrete floor without fall protection. The company did not dispute that the employees needed protection while installing channeling, but argued that the citation described…
Luhr Brothers Inc.
Federal-project noise citations reinstated
Luhr Brothers was an excavation subcontractor on an Army Corps of Engineers flood-control project in Missouri. OSHA cited construction noise-control, hearing-conservation, and guardrail violations. The judge dismissed the case on the ground that Corps safety requirements displaced OSHA coverage…
Willherco, Inc., Bermudez & Longo, Inc.
Subcontractor citations affirmed
Willherco and Bermudez & Longo were plumbing and electrical subcontractors at the same multi-employer construction site. Their employees had access to unguarded elevator shafts, stairways, and open-sided floors, although the subcontractors did not create the hazards and the general contractor was…
Phillip E. Runyan, d/b/a Chief Metal Products
Nonserious violations affirmed
An OSHRC judge affirmed a citation alleging nonserious safety and health violations by Chief Metal Products. The judge assessed no penalty. The employer asked the Commission to reconsider the same arguments it had presented to the judge. The Commission reviewed those arguments and found no…
T. Smith & Sons (Texas), Inc.
Repeated hard-hat penalty set at $200
T. Smith & Sons performed stevedoring work at the Port of Houston. About half of the employees unloading pipe and steel from one ship were not wearing hard hats, and the company's supervisor was also unprotected. The company did not dispute the repeated-serious violation, but challenged OSHA's…
Able Contractors, Inc.
Trench and seat-belt issues remanded
Able Contractors was replacing a sewer line in a 12-foot-deep, unshored trench in Billings, Montana. The judge found a serious trench violation but rejected OSHA's willful characterization, and also affirmed a citation because earthmoving-equipment operators did not use the provided seat belts. The…
McElwee-Courbis Construction Company, Inc.
Commission affirms an excavation-wall citation after a cave-in, rejecting the employer's slope and employee-misconduct defenses
McElwee-Courbis Construction was building a pumping station and surge tank, which required a large excavation about 68 to 70 feet across. A lower section of the excavation's 18 1/2-foot north wall collapsed, and an employee working between a 4-foot plywood barrier and the wall was pinned by the…
Arrow Louver and Damper Corp.
Commission vacates a default dismissal and remands, treating the employer's review request as an answer to the complaint
Arrow Louver and Damper Corp. contested OSHA penalties but did not file an answer to the complaint and did not respond to an order to show cause. Administrative Law Judge Chaplin dismissed the company's notice of contest and imposed the penalties OSHA had originally proposed. A week later, the…
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.