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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Smith Steel Casting Co.
Evidence from invalid warrant admitted
OSHA inspected Smith Steel’s foundry under an ex parte warrant and cited silica, copper-fume, noise, and respirator-program conditions. The Fifth Circuit later held that the warrant was invalid under the inspection regulation then in effect and returned the case for the Commission to decide whether…
Mahone Grain Corporation
Respirator-program violation reclassified as serious
Employees cleaning a long-unused grain elevator worked in thick dust with too few respirators, shared and improperly maintained equipment, and no respiratory protection program. Five employees later became ill, several requiring hospitalization, and the Commission concluded they had contracted…
Union Pacific Railroad Co.
Proposed FRA rules do not displace OSHA
Union Pacific faced a failure-to-correct matter and citations involving machine guarding, woodworking equipment, respiratory protection, posting, and other conditions. It argued that an advance notice of proposed Federal Railroad Administration rulemaking exempted it from OSHA requirements. 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review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.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.