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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Clean Fuels of Indiana, Inc.
General-industry items vacated because tank cleaning was construction work
Clean Fuels prepared newly installed underground tanks for a gas station that was still under construction. During the work, an employee was found unresponsive in a turbine-pump well and later died from gasoline inhalation. OSHA cited manhole, respiratory-protection, and permit-required…
Cagle's, Inc.
Waste trailer was a confined space despite its intended use
Cagle's used a trailer to hold carbon dioxide-treated waste breading at its Alabama poultry plant. Two employees died of asphyxiation after entering the trailer, and OSHA cited the company for failing to inform employees of the permit-required confined space. After an Eleventh Circuit remand, the…
St. Lawrence Food Corp., dba Primo Foods
Most dairy-plant health and safety citations affirmed
OSHA conducted health and safety inspections at Primo Foods, a kosher dairy, and cited hazards involving ammonia refrigeration, respirators, confined spaces, chemical training, noise, machine guarding, electrical work, lockout/tagout, powered industrial trucks, and recordkeeping. The ALJ found that…
Cagle's Inc.
Confined-space issue remanded after court review
Two Cagle's employees died from an oxygen-deficient atmosphere caused by carbon dioxide inside a poultry plant's waste-breading trailer. The Commission had previously vacated a citation alleging that the company failed to inform employees about a permit-required confined space. The Eleventh Circuit…
Greenleaf Motor Express
Confined-space items affirmed with willful classifications reduced
Greenleaf employees entered tanker trailers to pressure-wash them after transporting titanium dioxide slurry. An employee died inside a tanker whose oxygen level measured 11 percent after nitrogen had been used to pressurize it during unloading. The Commission held that Greenleaf should have asked…
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…
Lewis County Dairy Corp.
Widespread safety violations result in $72,750 penalty
OSHA found extensive safety deficiencies at Lewis County Dairy's kosher dairy plant, including missing safety programs, inadequate lockout practices, unguarded equipment, electrical hazards, deficient fall protection, and insufficient hazard communication. Of the 33 serious citation items, the…
Sturm Ruger & Co., Pine Tree Castings Division
Targeted inspection and settlements affirmed
OSHA used injury and illness data from Pine Tree Castings to select the handgun-casting facility for a programmed inspection under a nationwide targeting plan. Sturm Ruger challenged the data survey, inspection warrant, discovery rulings, evidence, and subpoenas. The Commission held that OSHA had…
Coastal Paving, Inc.
Twenty-three items affirmed after contest withdrawal
OSHA issued Coastal Paving three citations containing 23 serious, willful, and other-than-serious items against its asphalt manufacturing operation. Before the hearing, Coastal withdrew its contest and stated that it was no longer in business, had no employees, and could not refute the Secretary's…
Omaha Paper Stock Company
Eight permit-space violations affirmed
Omaha Paper Stock used a large baler whose chamber employees entered to clear jams. An employee became trapped under five to six feet of paper and required a 48-minute rescue. The Commission held that the chamber was a permit-required confined space because entrants faced recognized serious hazards…
Formica Corporation
A laminate-plant pit was not a permit-required confined space, so all three citations were vacated
Formica Corporation makes surfacing products like tabletops, flooring, and sheeting at a plant in Evendale, Ohio. After a formal complaint, OSHA inspected the facility and cited Formica for three violations tied to a pit beneath adjustable collating tables, where employees stepped down about twice…
United Erie, Div. of Interstate Chemical Co., Inc.
Confined-space items affirmed as serious
A United Erie production employee died from oxygen deficiency after entering a 4,000-gallon chemical kettle. Judge G. Marvin Bober found that United lacked a site-specific permit-space program, atmospheric testing equipment, adequate attendant practices, entry permits, and complete rescue…
Trinity Industries, Inc.
Railcar lining compartments were permit-required confined spaces
Trinity employees entered hopper railcar compartments and spray-applied flammable protective linings while forced-air ventilation operated. OSHA measured flammable vapor at 24 to 26 percent of the lower explosive limit at the lower compartment openings, more than twice the permit-space threshold…
Mobile Premix Concrete, Inc.
Sand hoppers held to be permit-required confined spaces
Mobile Premix Concrete operated below-ground sand and gravel hoppers that fed material onto a conveyor. An employee was buried in a sand hopper and died, and OSHA cited the company for failing to treat the hoppers as permit-required confined spaces. The Commission found that a live hopper limited…
Drexel Chemical Co.
Generic safety programs found inadequate
OSHA cited Drexel Chemical's manufacturing plant for permit-space, lockout, and material-storage violations. The Commission vacated the workplace-evaluation item because a qualified manager familiar with the plant had evaluated its spaces, and it vacated the warning-sign item because access was…
The Timken Company
Confined-space training violation affirmed but cut from willful to serious, penalty reduced to $3,000
The Timken Company makes tapered roller bearings and employs about 1,000 workers at its Canton, Ohio bearing plant. After an OSHA inspection, Timken was cited for confined-space violations in a heat-treat department where two vertical pit furnace areas were designated permit-required confined…
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.