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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Tony Watson, d/b/a Countryside Tree Service
Willful woodchipper and PPE violations affirmed
Countryside Tree Service used a five-person crew at three residential tree-removal sites. A 23-year-old employee with no tree-service experience was killed after becoming ensnared in a woodchipper on his first day of work. The judge found that the owner allowed two inexperienced employees to feed…
Spirit Homes, Inc.
Hardhat violation reduced from willful to serious
Employees at Spirit Homes worked below mobile-home roofs and scaffolds without hardhats while other employees used tools and materials overhead. The Commission agreed that the company violated the protective-helmet standard but reversed the ALJ's willful characterization. After an earlier citation…
C-Post
Willful lockout and guarding citations cut to serious after a small fence-post maker's amputation injury
C-Post is a small Montana company that makes wooden fence posts and furniture legs from logs, employing about 10 people. After a worker's left hand was severed in a doweler machine, OSHA inspected and issued a long list of serious, willful, repeat, and other-than-serious citations covering…
Kerns Brothers Tree Service
Hard-hat citation vacated because employer knowledge was not proven
Kerns Brothers Tree Service was cited after a three-person tree-trimming crew leader was fatally struck by a falling section of tree while none of the crew members wore hard hats. The hard-hat rule applied, and the crew leader counted as a supervisor because he directed the work and could order…
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review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.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.