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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Ricardo Correa, Jr., d/b/a Ricardo's Mexican Enterprises of Omaha
Masa-feeder failure-to-abate penalties vacated
Ricardo's Mexican Enterprises produced Mexican food in Omaha, Nebraska. OSHA initially cited conditions involving a masa feeder after a young employee was fatally injured while cleaning the machine, and the uncontested citation became final. In the later failure-to-abate case, the Commission found…
Signode Corporation
Steel-strapping rewinder guarding violation affirmed
Signode used lines of machines to rewind steel strapping onto reels weighing about 100 pounds. Each machine had an unguarded wheel with six rotating paddles, and employees moved among operating machines while changing reels. The Commission held that the paddles presented a hazard because they could…
Hammet Company, Inc.
Trenching citations vacated
Hammet excavated a trench with two sections, each more than five feet deep. OSHA initially cited the soft-or-unstable-soil trenching rule, but on review conceded that the soil was hard and compact and sought to substitute the hard-soil rule. The Commission held that the record did not prove either…
Empire-Detroit Steel Division, Detroit Steel Corporation
Coke-oven exposure item vacated
Empire-Detroit operated a steel mill in New Boston, Ohio. OSHA alleged that a coke-oven lid man was exposed to excessive coal tar pitch volatiles and that feasible engineering controls were not used. Although the exposure limit was exceeded, the Commission affirmed vacation of that item because the…
Warnel Corporation
Safety-belt violation affirmed after amendment
Two Warnel employees installed window frames at the edge of a third floor about 30 feet above the ground. They had to move outside the existing guardrail to perform the work, but they used no safety belts or other fall protection. The Commission held that a safety belt was not the structural…
DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Perimeter-guarding and housekeeping violations affirmed
DIC-Underhill performed structural concrete work on a New York City apartment building. The first and second floor edges were unguarded, with drops greater than six feet, and employees worked on both levels. The Commission held that the general perimeter-guarding standard applied to concrete…
Lidstrom, Inc.
Crane power-line clearance violation affirmed
Lidstrom leased a crane and its operator to another company for moving concrete pipe near energized power lines. The crane came within ten feet of the lines, and an employee of the lessee who was attaching the hook to pipe was electrocuted. The Commission held that Lidstrom remained the crane…
Graven Brothers and Company
Excavation violations reclassified as nonserious
Graven Brothers excavated a seven-foot-deep pit in sandy clay without adequate shoring, bracing, or sloping. A spoil pile about five feet high was within two feet of one wall, and a 9,000-pound truck operated next to another wall without added support. The Commission found that an employee in the…
Harold Christiansen and Harold W. Christiansen, d/b/a Palmer Christiansen Company
Ungrounded power-tool violation affirmed
Palmer Christiansen performed sheet-metal work at a Salt Lake City construction site. OSHA found a portable electric drill and chipping hammer in the company's gang box with their grounding prongs broken or cut off. The tools were available for employees to use in installing ductwork, although the…
Bechtel Power Corporation
Construction-manager safety violations affirmed
Bechtel managed construction of a Missouri power plant but did not perform craft labor. Its engineers, timekeepers, safety representatives, and other employees regularly worked throughout the construction site. The Commission held that this management and inspection work was directly tied to…
Star Circle Wall Systems, Inc.
Three site-hazard items affirmed, four vacated
Star Circle Wall Systems worked on a New York City construction project where debris obstructed work areas and stairways and materials were dropped more than 20 feet without an enclosed chute. The judge found that the company's employees worked throughout the buildings and were exposed to those…
Chief Freight Lines, Inc.
Safety-shoe requirement affirmed
Chief Freight Lines operated a Tulsa terminal where about 80 dock employees handled freight ranging from light boxes to 350-pound drums, pipe, vehicle parts, and oil-field equipment. Freight sometimes fell from stacks, carts, or trailers, and several employees had suffered foot or toe injuries. The…
Crane Company
Lead and silica exposure items affirmed
Crane Company manufactured valves and plumbing fixtures at a Tennessee foundry. Sampling showed employees were exposed to lead and silica dust above permissible limits, and the judge found that feasible industry technology existed to control those exposures. The company also lacked written…
Stowe Canoe Company
Twenty-one safety items affirmed
Stowe Canoe operated a small Vermont canoe-manufacturing facility. OSHA cited 22 conditions involving machine guarding, eye protection, flammable-liquid handling, fire extinguishers, compressed air, electrical equipment, aisle marking, and injury-record posting. The judge affirmed the first 21…
The Singer Company-Furniture Division
Polyester-line noise violations affirmed as nonserious
Singer operated a furniture plant in Toccoa, Georgia, with a polyester fill line added after an earlier plant-wide noise citation. One operator worked about six hours near equipment producing a 94 dBA sound level and was not using hearing protection. The judge found that feasible changes could…
Advance Specialty Company, Inc.
Cyanide-gas and guarding violations affirmed
Advance Specialty fabricated wire parts at a worksite shared with Platers and Coaters, an affiliated plating operation under common ownership and management. An employee of each company died when an inexperienced worker mixed acid salts with sodium cyanide and produced hydrogen cyanide gas. The…
Apex Glass & Sash, Inc., d/b/a Acme Glass Company
Radial-saw guarding violation affirmed
Acme Glass used a 12-inch radial arm saw to cut aluminum window-framing tubing. The upper half of the blade was covered, but up to six inches of the lower blade remained exposed while operators stood in front of the blade and held tubing about six inches away. The Commission held that the normal…
Sweetman Construction Company
Scraper seat-belt violation affirmed
A scraper operator was killed after two earth-moving vehicles collided, which prompted OSHA to inspect Sweetman Construction's highway project. The record did not establish whether that employee had been wearing a seat belt before the accident, so no violation was found from the fatal incident…
Jones Oregon Stevedoring Company
Crosscut-saw guarding violation affirmed
Jones Oregon Stevedoring kept a circular crosscut table saw in its Coos Bay gear locker without the required blade hood. The company admitted the saw was not guarded but argued that the woodworking standard was invalid because OSHA omitted a headnote from the underlying ANSI material. The…
The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co., Inc.
Meatcutter mesh-glove citation vacated
A&P did not require retail meatcutters to wear wire-mesh gloves on the noncutting hand while boning beef and veal. The cited personal-protective-equipment standard did not specifically mention mesh gloves or retail meat boning. Evidence showed that such gloves were rarely used in the industry and…
Matson Terminals, Inc.
Longshoring footwear citation vacated
Matson employees lashed cargo containers aboard the SS MATSONIA. OSHA observed two lashing employees wearing tennis or canvas shoes and cited Matson under the general personal-protective-equipment standard. The Commission held that the specific longshoring footwear standard controlled instead. That…
Collator Corporation
Press-brake subitems vacated and remaining citation affirmed
Collator Corporation manufactured collating machines at a Seattle plant. Its notice of contest referred only to the proposed penalties, but its answer and statements at the hearing showed that it also intended to contest two press-brake guarding subitems. The Commission therefore treated those…
Reynolds Metals Company
Noise-control citation vacated for lack of feasible controls
Reynolds Metals operated a can-manufacturing plant where employees worked near six production lines containing 126 pieces of equipment. OSHA's spot measurements showed noise levels from 92 to 105 dBA, and the Commission found that the excessive noise continued during the employees' exposure…
K & T Steel Corporation
Machine-guarding citation affirmed for three unguarded machines
K & T Steel fabricated structural steel, reinforcing bar, and tanks. OSHA cited the company because an ironworker, hydraulic press brake, and plate rolling machine lacked point-of-operation guards. K & T admitted the ironworker violation but contested the other two machines. The Commission held…
Lloyd C. Lockrem, Inc.
Mobile-equipment trench item revived and remanded
Lloyd C. Lockrem installed an underground concrete sewer line in a ground cavity that qualified as a trench. A front-end loader backfilled the cavity with its front wheels as close as 1.5 feet from the edge, and no stop logs or barricades were installed. The judge vacated the cited excavation…
Electrical Contractor Associates, Inc.
Shaft and roof-edge guarding citations affirmed
Electrical Contractor Associates was an electrical subcontractor at a building project in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Its employees worked near a mechanical shaft that lacked toeboards and was partly unguarded, and near an unguarded roof edge 48 feet above the ground. The judge affirmed two nonserious…
Okland Construction Company
Fall-protection citation affirmed for work on wall forms
Okland employees assembled wall forms for concrete placement at a power-station project. One employee died after falling 15 to 18 feet while installing a horizontal 2-by-4 waler without wearing a safety belt. Although no direct evidence established where he stood when he fell, the judge inferred…
Haybuster Manufacturing Company
Failure-to-abate ruling affirmed after court remand
Haybuster did not contest an initial citation, which became a final order requiring abatement. OSHA reinspected before the 15-working-day contest period expired and found four conditions uncorrected. A judge found failures to abate but reduced three of the four proposed additional penalties. The…
Dobson Brothers Construction Co.
Repeated spoil-pile violation affirmed and penalty reduced
Dobson Brothers laid pipe in a trench in Lincoln, Nebraska. OSHA alleged that the trench lacked adequate support in soft or unstable soil and that excavated material was stored within two feet of the trench edge. The Commission agreed with the judge that OSHA's expert evidence did not prove the…
W. J. Barney Corporation
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the W. J. Barney Corporation case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The attached judge's decision concerned a construction manager whose employees regularly inspected and traversed a construction site. The judge found the company subject to…
Walsh Construction Company
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Walsh Construction Company case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace conditions, judge's disposition, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent argues that…
Fischbach & Moore, Incorporated
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Fischbach & Moore case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The attached judge's decision involved an employee welding from outside a scaffold 18 feet above ground without a safety belt or lifeline, and welding zinc-bearing material without…
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company; Thorofare Markets, Inc.
Mesh-glove citations vacated
A&P and Thorofare Markets employed retail-store butchers who trimmed and boned meat, poultry, and fish without required wire-mesh gloves. The judge affirmed citations under the general personal-protective-equipment standard. Applying its Grand Union decision, the Commission held that the general…
Abbott-Sommer, Inc.
Roofing citations mostly affirmed without merits review
Abbott-Sommer was a roofing subcontractor working on a flat roof in Totowa, New Jersey. The judge vacated an item alleging inadequate potable water but affirmed items involving head protection during slag hoisting, an enclosed debris chute, perimeter guarding, and fall-protection equipment for an…
Mohawk Excavating, Inc.; Desarrollos Metropolitanos, Inc.; Texaco, Inc.
Review directions vacated
The Commission vacated directions for review in three cases involving Mohawk Excavating, Desarrollos Metropolitanos, and Texaco. It held that Commissioner Moran's directions did not grant the respondents' petitions for discretionary review and were the type rejected in Francisco Tower Service…
Southwest Filter Company; Bethlehem Steel Corporation; Borders Electric Company, Inc.; Grand Union Company; Henry Carlson Company
Review directions vacated
The Commission vacated directions for review in five cases involving Southwest Filter Company, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Borders Electric Company, Grand Union Company, and Henry Carlson Company. It referred to Francisco Tower Service and did not identify the underlying standards, workplace…
Raymond J. Pitts, Inc.; Millstone Erectors
Review directions vacated
The Commission vacated directions for review in cases involving Raymond J. Pitts and Millstone Erectors. It held that the directions failed to specify the issues for review and were contrary to the Administrative Procedure Act's intent and Commission policy. The official release does not identify…
L.G. Barcus & Sons, Incorporated
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the L.G. Barcus & Sons case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, judge's disposition, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent argues that canceling…
Joseph Ambrozaitis
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Joseph Ambrozaitis case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, judge's disposition, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent argues that canceling…
J.R. Simplot Co., d/b/a Simplot Soilbuilders
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the J.R. Simplot case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent states that the judge had vacated the contested…
Seattle Stevedore Company
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Seattle Stevedore Company case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, judge's disposition, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent argues that…
Kawneer Company, Inc.
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Kawneer Company case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent states that the judge had vacated the contested…
Everett Stevedoring Company
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Everett Stevedoring Company case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, judge's disposition, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent argues that…
Texas Window Cleaning Company
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Texas Window Cleaning Company case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The attached judge's decision involved two experienced employees who cleaned fifth- and sixth-floor hospital windows while standing on a 20-inch ledge without safety…
Kroger, Incorporated; Louisiana Paving Company; J. L. Price, d/b/a Price Cabinet Shop; Central Ohio Distributing Company
Review directions vacated
The Commission vacated directions for review in four cases involving Kroger, Louisiana Paving Company, Price Cabinet Shop, and Central Ohio Distributing Company. It referred to Francisco Tower Service and did not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, or penalty amounts. Commissioner…
Harris Structural Steel Co., Inc.
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Harris Structural Steel case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, judge's disposition, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent argues that…
George W. Rogers Construction Corporation
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the George W. Rogers Construction Corporation case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, judge's disposition, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent…
Port Chester Electric Construction Company, Incorporated
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Port Chester Electric case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The attached judge's decision involved two electrical employees working near an unguarded elevator shaft opening with a 65- to 70-foot drop, and an employee using acetylene…
Techno Products, Inc., d/b/a Techno Truck Manufacturing Co.
Locked-exit failure affirmed and extinguisher failure vacated
Techno manufactured trucks at a plant with a spray-paint booth and about 15 employees. OSHA alleged that the company failed to abate an inadequate supply of fire extinguishers near the booth and a locked rear exit. The Commission held that the extinguisher rule was not vague when read with the…
D. Federico Company, Inc.
Willful cave-in and spoil-pile citations affirmed
D. Federico had an employee working in a Boston earth cavity where the working depth was about 6.5 feet. The walls were not sloped, shored, sheeted, or braced, a large overhang stood about three feet from the employee, and excavated material was piled within inches of the wall. The judge vacated…
Leone Construction Company
Serious trench-support citation reinstated
Leone installed sewer pipe in a ditch about 50 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 7 feet 5 inches deep. Heavy rain entered the unsupported ditch, whose sandy-clay walls showed cracking and erosion. The judge vacated the citation after deciding that the opening was an excavation rather than a trench. The…
Francisco Tower Service
Publication-only direction for review vacated
Commissioner Moran directed review so the complete judge's decision would be published after the Commission discontinued its official bound reporter. The Commission held that publication alone did not present an issue for adjudication under the OSH Act because it was unrelated to the parties'…
Environmental Utilities Corporation
Willful trench citation reduced to serious
Environmental Utilities installed sewer lines at a Pennsylvania worksite. Two laborers entered an unsupported trench in damp clay after the foreman left to obtain parts, and the trench wall collapsed after about five minutes, trapping both workers and killing one. The Commission agreed that the…
Mobil Oil Company
Refinery heater relighting citation vacated
Mobil operated a natural-gas process heater at its Paulsboro, New Jersey, oil refinery. During a relighting attempt after a shutdown, the heater exploded and seriously injured an operator. OSHA cited Mobil under the general duty clause, alleging that its established relighting procedure lacked…
Grand Union Company
Retail mesh-glove citations vacated
Grand Union operated retail stores in Peterborough and Allenstown, New Hampshire. OSHA cited each store under the general personal-protective-equipment standard because meatcutters did not use wire-mesh gloves. The judge found that mesh gloves would eliminate or substantially reduce knife injuries…
Gate City Steel Corporation
Press-brake guarding case remanded for a merits hearing
Gate City Steel operated a metal-fabrication shop in Boise, Idaho. OSHA issued a serious citation alleging that two press brakes lacked point-of-operation guards and proposed a $600 penalty. Before taking evidence, the judge held that the general machine-guarding standard did not apply to press…
Amoco Oil Company
Aboveground forklift fuel-tank citation affirmed
Amoco maintained a fixed 250-gallon aboveground gasoline tank near a warehouse at its Whiting, Indiana, refinery. The tank primarily fueled company forklifts and on occasion was used by other vehicles. Amoco argued that the refinery was not a service station and that the powered-industrial-truck…
House Wood Products Company
Swing cutoff-saw guarding item affirmed
House Wood Products manufactured wooden pallets at a Mansfield, Pennsylvania, plant. OSHA cited three swing cutoff saws because their lower blade portions lacked guards that automatically adjusted to the stock being cut. The company argued that a compliant guard could trap and throw wood chips…
Isseks Brothers, Inc.
Safety belts required for uncaged fixed ladders
Isseks Brothers sent employees to make emergency repairs to a rooftop water tank about eight floors above a New York City street. The employees climbed uncaged fixed ladders, including a steep ladder rising between 26 and 30 feet above the roof, without safety belts or other fall protection. The…
Acme Metal, Inc.
Penalty-only contests leave citations final
Acme Metal operated two steel-fabricating plants in Portland, Oregon. OSHA cited machine-guarding and posting violations after inspecting both plants. The Commission held that Acme's notices of contest placed only the penalties at issue for the table saw in docket 1811 and the metal saw and posting…
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.