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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Prime International Shipping, LLC
Three serious warehouse violations affirmed
Prime International Shipping used a crew to load vehicles into overseas shipping containers at its Houston facility. OSHA cited an unprotected gap between the loading dock and containers, inadequate forklift training, and a chop saw with its guard tied back. Prime argued that the loading crew…
TMD Staffing
Machine-guarding violations affirmed
TMD Staffing supplied most of the workers at Hightower Metal Works' steel fabrication shop. TMD employees regularly operated an ironworker punch station, two press brakes, and a bending roll without required point-of-operation guards. One employee's finger was crushed while operating the bending…
Lloyd Industries, Inc.
Machine guarding and health violations largely affirmed
Lloyd Industries manufactured fire dampers and HVAC products at a Pennsylvania plant where a former employee's fingers were amputated by a press brake. OSHA's safety and health inspections identified unguarded machine points of operation and power-transmission parts, improperly closed electrical…
Berardi's Fresh Roast
Coffee bagger guarding violation affirmed
Berardi's Fresh Roast used an automatic machine to fill, heat-seal, and cut foil coffee bags. Bags regularly stuck near the machine's heated jaws and knife, and operators often reached through a gap beneath the interlocked doors to remove them while the machine kept running. An operator's fingertip…
Basic Marine, Inc.
Most shipyard citations affirmed
Basic Marine performed shipbuilding and repair work involving confined spaces, hazardous coatings, forklifts, cranes, lifting equipment, and work on barges and a pier. The judge affirmed nearly all contested items, including violations involving confined-space testing and rescue, respiratory…
Turner Industries Group, LLC
Pipe-machine guarding citation affirmed
Turner employees were being trained on a pipe-facing machine with one accessible cutting point left completely unguarded. A manufacturer's trainer unexpectedly started the machine while two employees were making measurements and adjustments, injuring one employee's hand. The judge found that Turner…
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…
Southern Foods, d/b/a Meadow Gold Dairies
Most lockout and guarding items vacated after trimmer injury
A Meadow Gold Dairies employee lost a finger while clearing a jam from a milk-jug trimmer after employees propped its reset button in the on position. The judge vacated a lockout-procedure item because the company's written procedures addressed the hazardous energy sources identified for the…
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…
North Atlantic Fish Company, Inc.
Broad fish-plant safety violations affirmed
OSHA's safety and health inspections of North Atlantic's Massachusetts fish-processing plant identified extensive fire, machine, electrical, chemical, respiratory, noise, storage, and powered-industrial-truck hazards. The judge affirmed most of the serious items, including general duty violations…
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…
Selkirk, Inc., a Division of U.S. Industries, Inc. and Sheet Metal Workers' International Association, Local Union # 456, Authorized Employee Representative
Willful machine-guarding violation affirmed after repeated notice of roller hazard
Selkirk fabricated metal pipe at its Logan, Ohio, plant using a Lown roller that created exposed in-running rolls when operated in reverse. An employee's glove was caught in the unguarded rollers in July 1999, crushing his hand, causing the partial amputation of a finger, and damaging two other…
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…
Kaspar Wire Works, Inc.
Commission upholds most willful recordkeeping violations but vacates unsupported items
Kaspar Wire Works manufactured formed wire products at a Shiner, Texas facility with roughly 850 to 900 employees. After a 1990 inspection, OSHA cited more than 400 alleged violations and proposed $1,236,000 in penalties; the ALJ affirmed most items and assessed $257,700. The Commission found that…
Turnbull Metal Products, Inc.
Press and facility violations produce $9,450 penalty
Turnbull Metal Products manufactured metal furniture and other products at a Mississippi facility using press brakes and mechanical power presses. OSHA cited missing platform and stair midrails, an inadequate lockout program, unguarded machine parts, deficient press inspections, and electrical…
National Envelope Corporation d/b/a New York Envelope Co.
All remaining machine-safety citations vacated
OSHA issued National Envelope Corporation citations after two inspections of its envelope manufacturing plant. One case alleged inadequate training after a machine operator injured a finger while attempting to address a chip-collector problem. Judge Richard DeBenedetto found that the operator had…
Dietrich Industries, Inc.
Machine-guarding citation dismissed
A Dietrich Industries employee injured his finger while adjusting a stacker table as the steel-processing machine continued to run. Company procedure required shutting the machine off or placing it in a noncycling mode before making the adjustment. The employee said production needs sometimes…
Parsons Company, Inc.
Two guarding violations reduced from willful to serious
Parsons Company, Inc. used a metal shear with a finger guard that could move out of alignment and a press brake with no point-of-operation guard. An employee reached beneath the shear guard after scrap slipped and lost the tips of six fingers when he accidentally activated the machine. The judge…
Fabricated Metal Products, Inc.
Commission requires reasonably predictable machine exposure
Fabricated Metal Products used automated presses with unguarded points of operation and horizontal camshafts. The Secretary argued that employees could contact the moving parts if they slipped or fell near the machines. The Commission held that exposure must be reasonably predictable through…
Caterpillar, Inc.
Press-guarding violations affirmed as repeat and willful
Caterpillar employees frequently operated a 700-ton hydraulic press with its protective light curtain disabled, exposing them to a point-of-operation pinch hazard. The Commission classified that violation as repeated because an earlier final citation involved a substantially similar descending-ram…
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…
Miniature Nut and Screw Corp.
Hearing-conservation lapses are serious violations, but machine-guarding items fail for lack of employee exposure
Miniature Nut and Screw Corporation is a small family-owned maker of die-cast zinc fasteners in Newington, Connecticut, with about ten employees. After a 1993 OSHA inspection, the company was cited for occupational-noise (hearing conservation) violations and numerous machine-guarding violations…
Waterbury Style, Inc.
Kick-press violation reclassified as nonserious, $750 assessed
Waterbury Style used a foot-operated kick press to assemble belt buckles. The operator needed both hands during the process and at times placed fingers in, or within a few inches of, the press's point of operation. The judge found the guarding violation clear because the standard requires a device…
Monfort of Colorado - Greeley Lamb
Settlement approved for $37,500
Monfort of Colorado - Greeley Lamb and the Secretary resolved citations arising from an OSHA inspection through a settlement approved by the Commission. The Secretary reclassified seven emergency-response and hazard-communication items from repeated to serious, and Monfort withdrew its contest to…
Kaspar Electroplating Corp.
Commission affirms three machine-guarding violations and vacates drill-press items
OSHA cited Kaspar Electroplating after inspecting its Shiner, Texas facility. On review, the Commission rejected Kaspar's argument that the citation was untimely, finding that OSHA issued it within six months of discovering the uncorrected conditions. It also held that a compliance officer may…
Art Specialty Company
Lamp manufacturer receives mixed ruling and $5,700 penalty
OSHA cited Art Specialty Company, a 29-employee lamp manufacturer, for numerous serious and other-than-serious conditions. The judge vacated a stairway citation because the Secretary did not prove employees used the stairs, and vacated the metal-shear portion of a machine-guarding item because the…
Southeastern Paper Products Export
Machine-guarding items vacated, exit-sign items affirmed
Southeastern Paper Products operated a paper-converting facility in Miami, Florida. OSHA cited unguarded slitter blades and drill-press belts and pulleys, but the judge vacated those items because the Secretary relied on assumptions and did not prove that employees entered the danger zones during…
Waste Processing Equipment, Inc.
Eleven of twelve serious items affirmed, one vacated, penalty cut to $4,600
Waste Processing Equipment, Inc. runs a manufacturing plant in Rainsville, Alabama, with about 28 employees making paper balers and other waste-handling equipment. A September 1991 OSHA inspection led to a serious citation with 12 items and a proposed penalty of $12,500, plus an "other" citation…
Trinity Industries, Inc.
Forklift-training item vacated for insufficient proof
Trinity used five forklifts at its San Antonio steel-fabrication plant, operated by employees with 15 to 30 years of experience. OSHA alleged that Trinity had not devised adequate methods to train those operators. The record showed that management monitored operator proficiency and that a…
Trinity Industries Inc.
Machine and electrical case settled for $800
OSHA inspected two Trinity Industries railcar fabrication plants in Dallas and cited numerous machine guarding, crane, electrical, tool, fire extinguisher, sling, and hazard communication conditions. An OSHRC judge affirmed several serious and other-than-serious items and vacated others. During…
Thermal Reduction Corporation
Review vacated after failure to comply with Commission orders
Thermal Reduction Corporation repeatedly failed to file required corporate-ownership information and current contact information for its representative. It also failed to respond to the Commission's show-cause order. The Commission therefore vacated the direction for review and made the ALJ's…
The Specialist of the South, Inc.
$3,000 penalty affirmed for 39 serious items
The Specialists operated a small furniture repair, refinishing, and upholstery business using flammable and toxic materials. OSHA cited 39 serious violations, primarily involving fire and explosion hazards, and proposed $9,900 in penalties. An ALJ affirmed every serious item but assessed a combined…
Vern's Manufacturing, Inc.
Late-contest dismissal remanded for factual record
OSHA issued Vern's Manufacturing a $2,100 failure-to-abate notification for unguarded points of operation on two iron worker machines. The family-run company appeared without counsel and maintained that its informal conference, phone calls, and a letter to the OSHA area director served as a timely…
Armour Food Company
Two guarding items affirmed and six items vacated
OSHA cited multiple conditions at Armour's meat-processing plant, and the Commission reviewed selected personal-protective-equipment, machine-guarding, power-transmission, centrifuge, and compressed-gas items. It vacated the mesh-glove item because OSHA did not prove that sharpening slicer blades…
Green Duck Corporation
Machine-safety settlement reduces penalties to $660
Green Duck, a novelty-products manufacturer, was cited for machine guarding, an unguarded belt drive, a repeat power-press violation, posting, and hazard communication conditions. OSHA initially proposed $1,730, and the judge assessed $1,600. In settlement, one machine-guarding sub-item was…
Pennsylvania Steel Foundry & Machine Company
Foundry settlement enforced and machine items split
OSHA's inspection of Pennsylvania Steel Foundry produced citations alleging 298 violations. The Commission declined to suppress the inspection evidence, holding that the later rule against ex parte warrants did not apply retroactively and that suppression would provide little deterrent value under…
Vac-Air Alloys Corporation
Shear-guarding settlement cuts penalty to $150
Vac-Air processed and cut metal using six hydraulic shears that OSHA cited for unguarded points of operation. The judge affirmed the serious violation and proposed $360 penalty. In settlement, Vac-Air agreed to install an adjustable barrier guard on one shear and use that guarded machine for stock…
General American Transportation Corporation
Five citation items left affirmed after deadlock
The judge affirmed citation items involving combustible material near oxygen storage, paint-spill cleanup, paint-residue accumulations, damaged crane slings, and machine guarding at General American Transportation's plant. Commissioner Cleary would have affirmed each item based on the cited…
Skydyne, Inc.
Hydraulic-press guarding subitems vacated
Two Skydyne hydraulic presses lacked point-of-operation guards, but the operators did not hold the fiberglass during the molding cycle; a vacuum, retaining ring, and clamps kept it in place. The compliance officer had not observed the machines running and did not establish the operators' hand…
General Electric Company
Press-guarding violation affirmed as serious
General Electric used a powder compacting press whose point-of-operation guard had to be removed for inspection and maintenance. With a selector key broken in the run position, an operator used the guard microswitch to jog the press, accidentally activated the rams, and suffered crushed fingers…
The Stacey Manufacturing Company
Shear item vacated and punch item affirmed
OSHA cited Stacey for inadequate guarding on a large steel shear and a hole-punch machine. The Commission vacated the shear item because horizontal pipes and bars greatly restricted access to the blade and hold-downs, employees had no operational reason to place their hands there, and the Secretary…
United Cotton Goods, Inc.
Fabric-knife guarding amendment allowed
United Cotton Goods employees used electric knives to cut stacks of fabric. OSHA originally alleged that employees should wear metal-mesh gloves under the personal protective equipment standard, then moved 13 days before the hearing to add an alternative point-of-operation guarding charge. The…
York Heel of Maine, Inc.
Beam-dinker machine-guarding violation affirmed
York Heel used beam-dinker presses whose operators held steel dies by hand while a heavy beam descended to cut shoe heels. The Commission found that operators' fingers could enter the half-inch gap between the die and beam and that the existing flange did not prevent point-of-operation exposure. It…
General Motors Corp., Rochester Products Division
Machine-guarding violation affirmed as de minimis
General Motors temporarily operated an automated carburetor machine with guards removed from three stations for repair. Employees did not normally work at those points of operation, and the machine was generally shut down when malfunctions were corrected. The Commission found technical…
A. Schonbek & Co., Inc.
Unguarded press violation held willful
A pneumatic press amputated portions of an employee's fingers, yet more than a month later the company continued using another die on the press without point-of-operation guarding. The Commission found that the company knew all five dies presented an amputation hazard and that its limited response…
L.A. Dreyfus Company
Machine-guarding settlement approved
The parties settled a machine-guarding citation originally classified as repeated with a proposed $360 penalty. The settlement reclassified the violation as serious but not repeated, reduced the penalty to $200, recorded abatement, withdrew the employer's contest and the Secretary's review…
Vampco Metal Products, Inc.
Press-brake guarding dispute remanded under employer defense burdens
Vampco manufactured custom metal products with press brakes whose operators held material near the point of operation. After Vampco did not abate an uncontested machine-guarding citation, the judge vacated failure-to-correct items for two presses because he found that feasible guarding had not been…
American Package Company, Inc.
Wrapper citation affirmed and paper-cutter citation vacated
American Package manufactured paper boxes with wrapping machines and guillotine paper cutters. The Commission found that wrapper operators could activate a cycle and then reach into the crushing point of operation. It rejected the company's impossibility defense because the company had not tried…
Mayhew Steel Products, Inc.
Stamping-machine guard issue remanded for accidental exposure analysis
Employees held tools by hand while a foot-operated stamping machine rolled a steel ring stamp across them. The judge vacated the machine-guarding citation because operators kept their fingers outside the point of operation during normal use. The Commission held that this reasoning conflicted with…
H. B. Zachry Co. International
Backing alarm and shear-guard citations affirmed
A leased dump truck with an obstructed rear view had no reverse alarm or observer and struck and killed a person while backing. The Commission found that Zachry employees and employees of other contractors had access to the truck's path, so it affirmed a serious vehicle citation. It also affirmed a…
Amforge Division, Rockwell International
Hydraulic-press guarding violation affirmed
Amforge used a large hydraulic press to straighten bent axle forgings. Employees placed their hands near or within the point of operation while one hand could remain on the control handle, and some forgings had to be held until the ram made contact. The Commission found that this evidence…
Brown & Root, Inc.
Rock-crusher platform guarding violation affirmed
Brown & Root operated a rock crusher at a nuclear power plant construction site. A demolition-machine operator worked on a small platform with two unguarded openings above a moving conveyor that led to the crusher. The Commission allowed OSHA to amend the citation from a general-industry…
Pass and Seymour, Inc.
Molding-machine guarding violation affirmed
Pass and Seymour operated 24 automatic molding machines whose heated dies closed under high pressure. Employees could reach between the dies while open or through side openings during the operating cycle, particularly while clearing a malfunction. The company relied on training, warning plates…
Fabricraft, Inc.
Sewing-machine needle violation reduced to de minimis
Fabricraft manufactured women's sportswear and operated 46 single-needle sewing machines, 44 of which lacked needle guards. Operators' hands came within one-half inch of the needles, and the record included several minor puncture injuries. The Commission affirmed a violation of the…
Kroehler Manufacturing Co.
Guillotine-cutter penalty reduced to $250
Kroehler used a guillotine cardboard cutter whose two-hand control allowed the operator to release one lever and move a hand near the descending blade during the cutting cycle. The Commission held that no more specific machine-guarding standard applied to the furniture plant, so the general…
MRS Printing, Incorporated
Easily bypassed cutter control violated guarding rule
MRS Printing operated a guillotine paper cutter with two controls, but an employee could activate one control with a knee and leave a hand free near the blade. The Commission held that the point-of-operation guard failed because the standard requires a device designed to prevent any body part from…
Hobart Corporation; Hobart Corporation (Troy Sunshade Division)
Press-brake guarding citations affirmed
Hobart Corporation and its Troy Sunshade Division operated nine press brakes without point-of-operation guards. The company argued that a more specific press standard displaced the cited machine-guarding rule and that the cited rule was vague and invalidly issued. The Commission rejected those…
General Electric Company, Inc.
Commission affirms two violations and vacates two others
OSHA cited General Electric after inspecting its Schenectady, New York, worksite. The Commission vacated a machine-guarding citation because guards and a spacer protected the radiac cutoff machine's point of operation, and it also left an electrical citation vacated. It affirmed a general duty…
Alliance Enclosures, Inc.
Machine-guarding decision affirmed without substantive Commission review
OSHA cited Alliance Enclosures for missing guards on a radial arm saw, a power brake, a power shear, and four power presses. The judge found that the saw had an adjustable travel stop and vacated that part of the first citation, but affirmed the missing blade guard and the point-of-operation…
MacMillan Industries, Inc.
Thermatron machine-guarding citation affirmed with a reduced penalty
MacMillan Industries fabricated canvas and plastic products and used a two-operator Thermatron machine to seal plastic with heat and pressure. OSHA measured a three-quarter-inch opening between the machine's descending bar and bottom plate, twice the three-eighth-inch opening indicated on 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.