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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Johnson Brass & Machine Foundry, Inc.
Fall and lockout violations affirmed
Johnson Brass operated pit-mounted centrifugal casting machines at its Wisconsin foundry. An employee was seriously injured when his clothing caught on a rotating die while he cleaned it from inside a spinner pit. OSHA cited fall protection, lockout-tagout, training, and machine-guarding violations…
U.S. Postal Service, dba Portland Processing and Distribution Center
Lockout and machine-guarding citations vacated
OSHA inspected the U.S. Postal Service's Portland processing and distribution center after a complaint and cited lockout, lockout-training, and machine-guarding conditions. The three contested items carried proposed penalties totaling $148,137. The judge found the lock-removal standard did not…
Nissan North America, Inc.
Conveyor lockout training violation affirmed
Three Nissan maintenance technicians inspected an overhead conveyor while a contract mechanic worked elsewhere and later restarted the conveyor, causing one technician’s hand to be pulled into a belt. The judge vacated a lockout-removal notification item because OSHA did not establish that the…
Action Electric Company, Inc.
Lockout citation reinstated on remand
Action Electric employees entered a steel mill's cooling-bed basement to prepare for fan replacement before the required lockout procedure was completed. A counterweight moved to its de-energized position, striking and killing an apprentice and narrowly missing the lead worker. An earlier judge had…
Matsu Ohio, Inc.
Lockout and power-press citation items vacated
Matsu Ohio manufactured stamped automotive parts using partial-revolution mechanical power presses. OSHA alleged several lockout/tagout and power-press violations involving servicing procedures, employee training, lock identification, die-setting procedures, and operating-mode selectors. The judge…
American Recycling & Manufacturing Co., Inc.
Broad safety violations affirmed after amputation inspection
American Recycling & Manufacturing produced wood packaging materials and pallets at a Rochester, New York facility. OSHA opened a safety inspection after a twenty-year-old employee's left hand was amputated when a coworker accidentally activated a pop-up saw, then opened a related health inspection…
MB Consultants, Ltd. d/b/a Murray's Chicken
Lockout, guarding, and chemical-training items largely affirmed
Separate safety and health inspections at Murray's Chicken produced lockout, machine-guarding, hazard-communication, and injury-recording citations. The judge affirmed serious lockout items for inadequate machine-specific procedures, deficient periodic inspections, and insufficient…
Basic Grain Products, Inc.
Lockout violations affirmed with one item reduced to serious
Basic Grain Products made snack foods using conveyors, augers, drums, ovens, and packaging equipment at its Ohio facility. Production employees cleaned moving or improperly locked-out machinery without receiving the lockout/tagout training or tools required for employees who perform servicing work…
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…
J.C. Watson Company
Onion packing operations were subject to general-industry standards
J.C. Watson Company grew onions and operated an Idaho facility that cleaned, sorted, graded, packaged, and prepared them for shipment. After an employee's arm was caught under a moving conveyor, OSHA cited the company under numerous general-industry standards. Watson argued that its packing work…
General Motors Corp., CPCG Oklahoma City Plant
Widespread lockout failures produced serious and willful violations
OSHA issued 57 lockout/tagout citation items after a millwright was killed when a motor rail conveyor activated during servicing work at General Motors' Oklahoma City plant. The Commission found that GM did not adequately implement or enforce its energy-control program, conduct the required annual…
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…
Burkes Mechanical, Inc.
Conveyor lockout violations affirmed but willful item reduced to serious
Burkes Mechanical employees cleaned debris beneath a running fuel-wood conveyor at a paper mill, and one employee was killed when his arm and shovel became caught between an idler and the belt. The Commission held that both the general lockout/tagout standard and the paper-mill-specific lockout…
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…
The Timken Company
Split Commission leaves two lockout violations in place
OSHA cited Timken after a maintenance employee was seriously injured when part of a steel mill moved during a hydraulic-hose repair. The judge found that the company had not adequately trained its authorized employees on hazardous energy control and that the mill had not been fully locked out. She…
Vandervoort's Dairy Foods Company
Lockout/tagout training citation vacated
Vandervoort's Dairy Foods Company distributed dairy products and fruit drinks at a Fort Worth plant where an employee died after being caught in a depalletizer. OSHA cited the company for inadequate training under the lockout/tagout standard. The judge found the cited standard inapplicable to the…
Equipment Depot, LTD
Two forklift safety items affirmed after fatal accident
An Equipment Depot field technician died after a Hyster forklift rolled and pinned him against his service truck. The judge found the lockout/tagout standard applicable because the service call included authorized repairs, but concluded that Equipment Depot's combined formal, apprenticeship, and…
Whirlpool Corporation, Oxford Division
Press safety and lockout violations affirmed
A press operator suffered severe head injuries when a mechanical power press cycled while she was inside it removing material. The judge found that Whirlpool lacked machine-specific energy-control procedures, left press-control keys available to operators without adequate supervision, and did not…
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…
J-Lenco, Inc.
Lockout and machine-guarding violations resulted in $6,250 in penalties
J-Lenco manufactured sand molds using machines with electrical, hydraulic, and pneumatic energy. An operator's arm was crushed when he tried to push a drifting machine component back into place. The judge affirmed serious violations involving excess flammable-liquid storage, inadequate…
Quebecor World - Salem Division, and its successors
Lockout/tagout citations vacated for a plastic-wrapping machine
Quebecor World ran a commercial printing plant in Salem, Illinois. After an inspection of its bindery, OSHA issued three serious lockout/tagout citations tied to the Spiral Grip 8150 Strapper/Wrapper machine, faulting the company for not providing lockout hardware, not training operators in energy…
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…
Idaho Trout Processors, Co.
Hatchery guardrail and processing-machine items vacated, lockout item affirmed
Idaho Trout Processors operated a trout hatchery and a nearby fish-processing plant in Buhl, Idaho. OSHA cited unguarded catwalks over fish runs, but the judge found the hatchery was a separate agricultural establishment and that the general-industry walking-surface standard did not apply. He also…
Worldwide Manufacturing, Inc.
Commission affirms willful and repeat machine-guarding violations and raises the penalties
Worldwide Manufacturing runs a small factory in Berkeley, Missouri that makes collapsible sawhorses, folding tables, and metal legs. OSHA inspected in 1995, cited machine-guarding and lockout/tagout problems, and Worldwide settled by agreeing to fix them. A 1997 follow-up inspection found many of…
L & B Products, Corp.
Fifty manufacturing safety items affirmed
L & B Products, Corp. manufactured furniture at a facility in Hudson, New York. OSHA issued 51 serious and other-than-serious items after inspecting eight departments. The allegations covered elevated work areas, exit signs, flammable liquids, fire and lockout training, machine and power-press…
Tops Markets, Inc.
Cord-and-plug lockout violations affirmed
A bakery employee seriously injured a finger when a roll machine started unexpectedly while he changed a die without unplugging it. Employees also cleared jams from another plugged-in machine that could crush or lacerate their hands. Tops argued that cord-and-plug equipment was exempt from…
Murphy Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a Murphy Brothers Exposition
Failed Giant Wheel rope and missing sling inspections yield $10,000
Murphy Brothers Exposition was setting up a 90-foot carnival Ferris wheel in Dallas when a damaged wire rope failed, causing moving wheel components to kill two employees and seriously injure a third employee, whose leg was partially amputated. Administrative Law Judge Stanley M. Schwartz found…
Louisiana-Pacific Company
Sander kickback and repeat lockout failures produce $158,500
Louisiana-Pacific Company operated a particle-board plant where a jammed wide-belt sander ejected a board that struck an employee and caused severe internal injuries. The judge found that kickback was a recognized woodworking hazard and that manufacturer-recommended anti-kickback fingers would…
DCS Sanitation Management, Inc.
Willful lockout violations affirmed after fatal cleaning incident
DCS Sanitation Management cleaned operating meat-processing equipment at an IBP plant in Nebraska. OSHA cited five willful lockout/tagout violations after an employee was killed while cleaning a running loin saddle table. Administrative Law Judge James H. Barkley found that supervisors knew…
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.