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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Consolidated Grain & Barge Co.
Two grain-bin items vacated
Consolidated Grain & Barge employees entered a grain bin while a partially guarded sweep auger was operating. The judge found that CGB's instructions to remain a safe distance behind the auger and its use of an outside attendant were not equally effective alternatives to deenergizing or positively…
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…
LTV Steel Company
Partial ruling remanded for reconsolidation
An OSHRC judge granted LTV Steel partial summary judgment and vacated one floor-opening item before resolving the other three contested items. The Commission held that the ruling reached it prematurely because the judge had not found good cause to sever the item and a single Commission member's…
Anoplate Corporation
Mixed ruling on plating, chemical storage, and recordkeeping items
Anoplate operated an electroplating and metal-finishing plant with open chemical tanks, chemical storage, spray painting, and compressed-air work. The Commission affirmed a nonserious eye-protection violation because dipping racks created a significant risk of harmful splashes, and it assessed $25…
Arkansas Rice Growers Cooperative Association
Roof-hatch citation vacated
An Arkansas Rice Growers employee died after an unsecured section of a hatchway cover gave way on the sixth-level roof of a by-products plant. OSHA cited the cooperative under two alternative general-industry standards for guarding floor openings. The Commission held that those standards did not…
Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.
Amended open-pit guarding citation affirmed
Kaiser was originally cited under a floor-hole standard for failing to cover or guard open carbon pits. In an earlier decision, the Commission substituted the standard specifically requiring covers or guardrails for open pits and gave Kaiser an opportunity to object. The Commission rejected…
General Electric Company
Unguarded paint-room pit violated open-pit standard
General Electric used a long, five-foot-deep pit to paint the undersides of railroad cars at its Erie facility. After a car left the room, painters routinely cleaned debris from a floor surrounding the unguarded pit and worked within two to three feet of its edge. The Commission held that…
Prineville Mouldings, Inc.
Trim-saw citation vacated, floor-opening item affirmed
Prineville Mouldings, Inc. manufactured lineal pine moulding at a plant in Prineville, Oregon. OSHA cited eight unguarded trim saws as hand-fed crosscut table saws, an uncovered floor opening leading to a conveyor, and unguarded power-transmission parts on woodworking machinery. The judge found…
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.