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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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…
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…
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…
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…
Tidewater Pacific, Inc.
OSHA jurisdiction upheld on uninspected tugboat
OSHA cited working conditions on an uninspected tugboat operating within Alaska's three-mile territorial waters. The Commission held that a vessel in those waters is a workplace in a state under the OSH Act. Coast Guard regulation did not preempt OSHA's confined-space, machine-guarding…
Superior Tank and Trailer Co.
Press-brake item affirmed, three other items vacated
Superior repaired commercial tanks and trailers that had carried products ranging from food to gasoline and acids. The judge found that its contractor washouts, supervisor checks, atmospheric testing, periodic retesting, and forced-air ventilation adequately evaluated the units and prevented them…
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.