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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Cranesville Block Co.
Review withdrawn and judge's ruling made final
The judge decided three consolidated dockets involving related Cranesville companies. The Secretary petitioned for Commission review only of issues in two companion dockets, not docket 10-0447. The Commission therefore severed 10-0447 and vacated its direction for review of that case. The judge's…
Dierzen-Kewanee Heavy Industries, LTD
Unabated hazards resulted in $133,100 in penalties
Dierzen-Kewanee manufactured dump-truck bodies at a former boiler factory in Illinois. After settling earlier OSHA citations, the company paid only the first penalty installment, did not provide requested abatement information, and left many cited conditions uncorrected for a follow-up inspection…
Sanderson Farms, Inc.
Unstable freezer pallet storage resulted in a $6,300 penalty
Sanderson Farms stored 2,200-to-2,500-pound pallets of frozen chicken on an aging freezer rack system with frequently damaged legs and little margin for placement error. A maintenance employee died from smoke inhalation and burns after beginning to cut a damaged rack leg while loaded pallets…
Cagle’s, Inc.
Waste-breading hazard items partly affirmed
Cagle's operated a chicken-processing plant where two employees died in a waste-breading trailer after carbon dioxide created an oxygen-deficient atmosphere. OSHA alleged that the trailer was a permit-required confined space and that Cagle's failed to label containers and train employees about…
North Atlantic Fish Company, Inc.
Broad fish-plant safety violations affirmed
OSHA's safety and health inspections of North Atlantic's Massachusetts fish-processing plant identified extensive fire, machine, electrical, chemical, respiratory, noise, storage, and powered-industrial-truck hazards. The judge affirmed most of the serious items, including general duty violations…
Dayton Hudson Corp.
Roofing and acetone violations affirmed with reduced penalties
Dayton Hudson employees performed roofing work on a flat roof in West Allis, Wisconsin, about 28 feet above the next level. The company admitted that employees did not use available harnesses and that its warning-line system was incomplete, too loose, too close to the roof edge, and missing around…
Aero Tec Laboratories, Inc.
Plant safety items largely affirmed with reduced penalties
Aero Tec manufactured fuel tanks and containment vessels at its New Jersey plant. The judge rejected its claim that OSHA had promised no penalties or exceeded the scope of consent because management accompanied the open inspection without objecting. The decision affirmed items involving an…
American Airlines, Inc.
FAA ground-operations manual does not preempt OSHA guardrail and hazard-communication citations after a fatal fall
American Airlines ran an aircraft maintenance and repair facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After a worker fell from the third story of a roughly 27-foot mobile "tail stand" work platform through unguarded floor openings to the ground and died, OSHA inspected and issued citations across two dockets…
General Cutlery Co., Inc.
Knife maker loses on almost every safety and health citation, including a willful hazard-communication violation
General Cutlery makes bayonets and household knives in Fremont, Ohio. After complaint inspections in May 1994, OSHA issued two sets of citations, later consolidated: safety violations (Docket No. 94-2015) and health violations (Docket No. 94-1933). The company, represented by its president, argued…
Pit-Stop, Inc. (Uniroyal Pitstop)
Unguarded service pit affirmed as a serious violation, $100
Pit-Stop, Inc., operating as Uniroyal Pitstop in Midwest City, Oklahoma, ran an automotive shop where workers used floor pits about 3 feet wide, 5 feet deep, and 10 feet long to reach the underside of vehicles for oil changes and grease jobs. OSHA cited the shop after an inspection found several of…
Halocarbon Products Corporation
Commission approves $5,500 chemical-safety settlement
Halocarbon Products manufactured specialty chemicals at a New Jersey plant where OSHA investigated after a reported chemical exposure hospitalized two employees, one of whom later died. OSHA alleged general-duty, respirator-program, and hazard-communication violations and initially proposed $37,000…
CNG Transmission Corporation
Mixed ruling on frac-tank hazards
CNG Transmission was preparing a natural-gas field for underground storage and used workers supplied by Union Drilling to monitor a frac-fluid flow-back operation. After the piping was changed so that fluid and gas flowed directly into a frac tank, two night-shift workers were found inside the tank…
Air Plastics, Inc.
Mixed ruling on pit hazards and chemical training
Air Plastics manufactured fiberglass tanks using molds mounted over production pits that employees entered during setup. The judge vacated a failure-to-abate general duty clause citation alleging hazardous confined-space atmospheres because OSHA did not prove that employees faced a significant risk…
Metal Recycling Company
Scrap-yard hazards yield mixed ruling and $400 penalty
OSHA inspected Metal Recycling Company's three-employee scrap-metal facility in El Paso, Texas, and issued a serious citation with multiple items. The judge affirmed serious violations involving unsecured access stairs, an exit leading into a blocked and fenced yard, obstructed aisles, hazardous…
Trinity Industries, Inc.
Full-scope inspection warrant upheld
Trinity manufactured tanks and pressure vessels at a Sharonville, Ohio, facility. After an employee complaint, OSHA obtained a warrant authorizing a limited complaint inspection, a records review, and a full-scope inspection if neutral administrative-plan criteria were met. The facility's…
Conagra Flour Milling Co. & Its Successors
Flour-mill electrical and blowdown violations affirmed
Conagra operated a seven-story flour mill in Sherman, Texas, where combustible grain dust made the milling floors Class II, Division 2 hazardous locations. The Commission affirmed serious violations for using a grain tester and pedestal fan with exposed motor components that did not meet the…
Louisiana-Pacific Corporation
Particleboard hazard communication items vacated
OSHA cited Louisiana-Pacific's Montana particleboard plant for three alleged violations of the Hazard Communication Standard and proposed $1,000. The items concerned formaldehyde warnings on particleboard shipping labels, warnings on stationary formaldehyde tanks, and safety data sheets for…
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.