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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Loomis Cabinet Company
Cabinet workers held to be employees
Loomis Cabinet Company manufactured wooden cabinets and was cited after a follow-up inspection for repeat, other-than-serious, and failure-to-abate violations. Loomis stipulated to the violations but argued that its former employees had become partners in Eastview Cabinet Company, leaving Loomis…
Bay State Smelting Co., Inc.
Split Commission leaves judge's lead and posting rulings in place
Bay State Smelting operated a workplace where employees were exposed to excessive lead. The judge affirmed numerous serious lead-standard violations, including prohibited prophylactic chelation, but declined to classify the chelation violation as willful. The judge also vacated a citation-posting…
American Bag Co., Inc.
Failure-to-abate penalties reduced
American Bag was a 17-employee leather bag manufacturer in Puerto Rico. After the company did not contest an initial citation, OSHA reinspected and alleged that multiple violations had not been corrected, that the citation had not been posted, and that an injury log had not been maintained. The…
C & H Erection Company, Inc.
Delayed citation-posting violation affirmed
C & H Erection received an OSHA citation on a Thursday but did not post it at the jobsite until the following Tuesday, after a compliance officer arrived for reinspection. The judge interpreted the requirement to post immediately as requiring diligent action with reasonable dispatch under the…
Cable Car Advertisers, Inc.
Ship-repair and posting citations partly affirmed
Cable Car Advertisers was converting the burned-out ferryboat San Leandro into a floating office while it was moored in San Francisco Bay. The Commission held that work on the floating, towable structure was covered by the maritime standards and that maintaining a workplace on navigable waters…
Rogge Lumber Sales, Inc.
Posting and failure-to-abate penalties affirmed
Rogge Lumber failed to post an earlier uncontested citation and did not timely correct three items involving drinking water, toilet facilities, and a walkway near a gang trimmer. The judge rejected OSHA's mechanically calculated proposals because they imposed fixed minimums without proper…
James L. Brussa, Masonry
Dismissal for failure to post citation reversed
OSHA cited James L. Brussa for removing required guardrails from open-sided fourth- and fifth-floor work areas and proposed a $150 penalty. Brussa contested but admitted that he had not posted the citation at or near the worksite. The administrative law judge treated that posting failure as grounds…
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.