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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Delek Refining, Ltd.
Four refinery safety items affirmed and two vacated
OSHA cited six conditions at Delek's Texas oil refinery under the process safety management, machine guarding, and hazard communication standards. The Commission affirmed PSM items for failing to resolve process-hazard-analysis and audit findings inherited from the prior owner, holding that the…
Sanderson Farms, Inc.
Two poultry-plant shaft-guarding items affirmed with reduced penalty
OSHA found unguarded rotating shafts on chicken-cutting saws and an unguarded projecting shaft end at a Sanderson Farms processing plant. The judge held that the saw arbor was an integral part of the power-transmission shaft and that the specific guarding standards required physical guards without…
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…
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…
Oberdorfer Industries, Inc.
Foundry citations partly affirmed and partly vacated
Oberdorfer operated an aluminum foundry that OSHA inspected under a local emphasis program for primary-metal industries. The Commission vacated the no-smoking-sign and explosion-proof-wiring items because the Secretary did not perform the testing her expert said was needed to establish dangerous…
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…
A.E. Staley Manufacturing Co.
Asbestos, HazCom, and combustible-dust electrical violations largely affirmed, many as willful
A.E. Staley Manufacturing runs a large grain wet-milling plant in Decatur, Illinois. A lengthy OSHA inspection begun in July 1990 produced two sets of citations, consolidated here as Docket Nos. 91-0637 and 91-0638. In the first docket, the Commission affirmed as willful the asbestos items for…
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…
Dream Set Fashion, Inc.
$5,500 penalty affirmed for six serious violations
Dream Set Fashion manufactured women's apparel in New York City and contested only the $5,500 penalty for six serious violations. The conditions involved a covered exit sign, unguarded fan blades, an unguarded rotating shaft, an unguarded sewing-machine pulley, missing grounding pins, and an open…
Air Plastics, Inc.
Mixed ruling on pit hazards and chemical training
Air Plastics manufactured fiberglass tanks using molds mounted over production pits that employees entered during setup. The judge vacated a failure-to-abate general duty clause citation alleging hazardous confined-space atmospheres because OSHA did not prove that employees faced a significant risk…
Conagra Flour Milling Company
Commission splits flour-mill safety citations and assesses $500
Conagra operated a flour-milling facility in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, where OSHA cited battery servicing, powered industrial trucks, machine guarding, compressed-air cleaning, and grain-handling practices. The Commission vacated the personal-protective-equipment and eyewash items because OSHA's…
Horn & Gladden Lint Cleaner Co., Inc.
Machine-guarding citations remain vacated
OSHA cited Horn & Gladden Lint Cleaners for repeated and nonserious machine-guarding violations involving belts, shafts, and a fan. The Administrative Law Judge vacated all three citations because the Secretary did not prove that employees were exposed to the alleged hazards. Neither party sought…
Amory Cotton Oil Company
Screw-conveyor guarding amendment remanded
Amory Cotton Oil employees manually pushed cottonseed into an uncovered floor-level screw conveyor, and one employee was fatally injured. OSHA cited a power-transmission shaft standard, but at the hearing sought to add an open-sided-floor standard and the general machine-guarding standard after the…
J. F. Probst & Co., Inc.
Roof guardrail citation reinstated with $25 penalty
J. F. Probst employees performed roofing work about 20 feet above the ground without a standard railing or equivalent fall protection. The judge vacated that item because he found the open-sided floor and platform rule inapplicable to roofs. The Commission reversed, holding that the standard…
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.