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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Knock Out Homes Incorporated
Default reinstated and citations affirmed
OSHA issued Knock Out Homes seven citation items involving housekeeping, tools, electrical safety, ladders, fall protection, and training, with proposed penalties totaling $41,349. The company timely contested but did not file an answer or respond to a show-cause order and default motion, leading…
Meadows Construction Company, LLC
Citations upheld despite expired inspector credential
OSHA inspected Meadows Construction’s public-school roofing project after receiving a complaint that employees were working without fall protection. The administrative law judge affirmed machine-guarding, ground-fault protection, housekeeping, power-tap, and fall-protection items, assessing $24,400…
Durco Contractors, Inc., formally J.R. Durham d/b/a Durco Contractors, Inc.
Five renovation hazards affirmed for $10,600
During a hotel renovation, employees used nearly dark stairs, worked near exposed energized wires, used an extension cord as fixed wiring, rode on a forklift pallet, and operated forklifts without verified training. Durco stopped participating in the case and did not appear at the hearing, leaving…
TKO, Inc. dba TKO Custom Homes
Willful stairway violations affirmed after worker fall
A plumbing subcontractor employee fell from an unguarded apartment stairway and suffered serious injuries. TKO stipulated that its worksite had debris, missing bottom treads, and stairways and landings without required rails. The judge found the railing violations willful because the foreman knew…
Brand Energy Solutions LLC
Scaffold housekeeping item vacated under specific-standard preemption
Brand Energy Solutions installed insulation at a Texas refinery after Hurricane Ike damaged existing insulation across a large area. The Commission held that the project was construction work because it was large, complex, nonroutine, and included installation of new insulation. OSHA cited Brand…
Chenal Valley Construction, Inc.
All citation items withdrawn and judge’s decision vacated
The judge had affirmed residential fall-protection and ladder citations against Chenal Valley Construction as the controlling employer at an Arkansas homebuilding site. The case was directed for Commission review. Before the Commission decided the merits, the Secretary withdrew every remaining…
Altor, Inc., and/or Avcon, Inc.
Eight willful items affirmed with $412,000 penalty
OSHA cited extensive hard-hat, open-edge, and floor-hole hazards during construction of a sixteen-story concrete building. The Commission held that Altor and Avcon operated as a single employer because they shared a worksite, management, ownership, office support, and integrated operations. The…
Masonry Arts, Inc.
Scaffold planking, access, and repeat guardrail items totaled $12,500
Masonry Arts employees performed block repair work from a scaffold platform approximately 12.5 feet above the ground at a new Florida high school gymnasium. The judge found a five-inch gap between planks, no safe ladder access, and no guardrail or other fall protection on the platform. He rejected…
N. Picco & Sons Contracting Co., Inc.
Scaffold and housekeeping violations affirmed
N. Picco & Sons was constructing a three-story addition to a school in Bronxville, New York. OSHA observed two employees working 36 and 42 feet above ground on a scaffold with improper fall-arrest anchorage, incomplete planking, an excessive gap from the building, and no suitable access. The judge…
Cody-Zeigler, Inc.
Consensual inspections and mixed citation rulings affirmed
Cody-Zeigler faced citations arising from five programmed inspections at construction projects in Ohio. Although company representatives consented when OSHA arrived, the contractor later argued that the frequency of inspections showed a lack of administrative probable cause. The Commission held…
Malu Construction Co., and its successors
Jury-rigged scaffold items affirmed for $8,000
Malu called its framing workers independent subcontractors, but it supplied their scaffold and safety equipment, assigned their work, provided training, and retained authority to stop work. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz therefore treated them as Malu employees under the common-law control test. OSHA…
Orion Construction, Inc.
$100 penalties upheld for low-gravity fall violations
Orion employees installed metal studs at an 11-foot edge where the guardrail midrail had been lowered, and other employees passed within a few feet of a partially covered stairwell opening protected only by caution tape. The Commission agreed that both conditions were serious violations but found…
Baker Drywall Company, Inc.
Aerial-lift and edge fall violations affirmed
Baker Drywall employees relocated metal studs on simulated smokestacks at a movie theater construction site. One worked from an aerial-lift basket without tying off and at one point straddled its top rail, while another stood on a structural ring about 16 feet above a steel roof without fall…
Olympia Drywall Company, and its successors
Debris citation vacated for no employee exposure
Scrap lumber with protruding nails and other debris existed at Olympia Drywall's multi-employer construction site and presented tripping and puncture hazards. OSHA relied on employee statements to argue that Olympia workers entered the affected areas to reach restrooms or a food truck. Judge Robert…
King Concrete Construction Company, Inc.
Willful fall violations and settlement yield $18,200
King Concrete performed concrete work on a barracks project at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. The company admitted that employees working on and near leading edges lacked required fall protection, but disputed OSHA's willful classification and proposed $49,000 penalty. The judge found the violations…
Milo Construction Corporation
Twelve violations affirmed with reduced classifications
Milo Construction Corporation was the prime contractor on a residential construction project in Guam. After Milo failed to comply with discovery orders, the judge deemed admitted the cited conditions, employee exposure, and Milo's ability to control or correct the hazards. The violations covered…
National Acoustics, Inc.
Housekeeping citation tossed, but electrical-hazard citations upheld against a demolition subcontractor
National Acoustics was a demolition and cleanup subcontractor on a hotel renovation in Chicago. OSHA inspected in August 1996 and issued a serious citation with three items: one for scrap lumber with protruding nails and other debris on the floor, and two for letting employees work close to live…
Meridian Contractors, Inc.
Dismissals reversed and citation cases remanded
OSHA issued Meridian Contractors serious and willful construction citations with proposed penalties after two inspections. The ALJ dismissed both cases under Commission precedent treating the actions as moot because Meridian had stopped employing workers and was preparing to dissolve. After that…
James Construction
Controlling employer liable for subcontractor hazards
James Construction supervised a siding subcontractor and controlled its work approval and payment. The judge held that James could not ignore repeated safety violations merely because stronger enforcement might delay the job or reduce profits. Serious items involving eye protection, unguarded…
Capform, Inc.
Four concrete-construction safety items affirmed
Capform performed concrete formwork and shoring at a multi-employer construction site in Florida. The Commission affirmed a serious unguarded-rebar item because employees could pass through the hazardous entrance area and the company did not take reasonable alternative protective measures. It also…
McDonald Masonry
Four scaffold-safety items affirmed as serious, $5,500
McDonald Masonry did masonry work at a jobsite in De Soto, Texas, where OSHA inspected in July 1993 and issued a serious citation. The company contested four scaffold-related items but its owner did not appear at the June 1994 hearing, so Administrative Law Judge Stanley M. Schwartz proceeded on…
Triangle Engineering Corp.
Mixed construction ruling carries $1,350 in penalties
Triangle Engineering was the general contractor building a prison in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. The ALJ affirmed serious violations involving site-specific safety instruction, missing edge guardrails, an accessible crane swing radius, and an unprotected excavation. She also affirmed other-than-serious…
Fuellgraf Electric Co.
Platform-training item affirmed, debris item vacated
Fuellgraf Electric Company was an electrical contractor at an elementary school construction site in Pennsylvania. OSHA alleged that an employee operating a self-elevating platform lacked proper training and that debris in a cafeteria created a tripping hazard. The judge affirmed the platform item…
Prestressed Systems, Inc.
Consolidated cases severed and one citation affirmed
Prestressed Systems contested citations from two worksites, and the cases were consolidated for hearing. The judge affirmed a housekeeping citation under section 1926.25(a) in Docket No. 76-4276 and vacated a protective-equipment citation in the other case. Only the protective-equipment ruling was…
The Duncanson-Harrelson Company
Unsecured barge crane and housekeeping violations affirmed
Duncanson-Harrelson used an unfastened truck crane on a barge while replacing wharf pilings. The Commission held that the requirement to positively secure a mobile crane meant physically fastening it to the barge, and the company did not prove that compliance created a greater hazard. Ropes, spiked…
Paul Betty d/b/a Betty Brothers
Scaffold and housekeeping violations affirmed but repetition rejected
Two Betty Brothers employees worked from a 12-foot scaffold without guardrails or an access ladder, and debris with protruding nails surrounded the work area. The senior employee supervised the other worker, purchased materials, reported progress, and acted as the company's on-site representative…
Gallo Mechanical Contractors, Inc.
Construction debris violation narrowed
Employees had to weave through or step over wood, steel, pipe, and equipment at two construction-site elevations. The Commission held that “debris” includes scattered material even if it may be reused, but does not include equipment to be installed or removed. It affirmed the first-elevation…
Pullman Power Products
Inspection objections require proof of prejudice
A Pullman employee used an open-sided catwalk 50 to 60 feet above a floor, and employees also faced a tripping hazard. The judge vacated the citations because Pullman's foreman did not understand that an OSHA inspection was underway. The Commission held that the compliance officer had permission to…
Wander Iron Works, Inc.
Scaffold, ladder, and housekeeping violations affirmed
A Wander Iron Works foreman worked 15 feet above ground on a bracket scaffold without required guardrails and with his safety belt untied. Another employee worked from a nearby ladder at the same height without a safety belt or other fall protection. The foreman's knowledge was imputed to the…
Stearns-Roger, Incorporated
Four violations upheld and cylinder item vacated
Stearns-Roger was the general contractor building an addition to a New Mexico power plant. On review, the Commission upheld violations involving inadequate eye protection, unguarded floor holes, construction housekeeping, and welding hoses and cables in passageways. It affirmed the housekeeping and…
Gotham Electric Company
Subcontractor safety violations conditionally affirmed
Gotham Electric Company employees were exposed to construction debris, defective job-made ladders, unguarded floor openings, and unguarded open-sided floors at a multi-employer worksite. The electrical subcontractor did not create or control the conditions, but the Commission held that an exposing…
Eliason & Knuth Drywall Company
Drywall citation rulings left in effect
Eliason & Knuth received citations at two Omaha construction sites for housekeeping, scaffold, electrical, and guarding conditions. The Commission declined to review the judge's rulings on most items because no party objected and no compelling public-interest issue was shown. The disputed issue was…
Underhill Construction Corp. and DIC Concrete Corp., trading as DIC-Underhill, a Joint Venture
Willful high-rise guardrail violation affirmed for $5,000
DIC-Underhill employees worked on the fifteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth floors of a high-rise construction project without required perimeter guardrails or equivalent fall protection. The Commission rejected the argument that the horse-scaffold standard displaced the open-sided-floor standard…
Howard P. Foley Co.
Injury-log item affirmed and four worksite items vacated
Howard P. Foley performed electrical work at a power-plant construction site. The judge affirmed a recordkeeping item because the onsite injury and illness log contained no entry for a known lost-time injury, and he assessed a $50 penalty. He vacated a housekeeping item because valves awaiting…
Elford, Inc.
Extinguisher and saw-switch items affirmed
Elford was remodeling a building when OSHA issued ten nonserious citation items. Two items were not contested and became final orders. Of the remaining items, the judge affirmed a fire-protection item because the extinguisher near a kerosene storage area had been discharged and was ineffective. The…
Space Age Concrete & Masonry, Inc.
Fall-hazard items affirmed and four other citations vacated
Space Age Concrete & Masonry worked as a masonry subcontractor on a multistory building in Naples, Florida. Inspections found employees near uncovered elevator-shaft openings and working at unguarded edges without effective fall protection. The judge affirmed the floor-opening and…
Howard P. Foley Co.
Debris and stair citations vacated under multi-employer defense
Howard P. Foley was the electrical subcontractor on a sewage-plant construction project in Newport News, Virginia. OSHA cited construction debris, hollow metal stair treads that were not filled, and open-sided stairs without railings, proposing $860 in penalties. The judge found that the general…
Consolidated Interior Systems, Inc.
Six site-safety items affirmed with reduced penalties
Consolidated Interior Systems was a drywall subcontractor at a New Jersey shopping-center project. Employees used ungrounded power tools and defective extension cords, worked around unguarded temporary bulbs and debris, and used a narrow mobile scaffold without guardrails or caster locks. The judge…
K & B Sheet Metal, Inc.
Three nonserious construction violations affirmed with $150 in penalties
K & B Sheet Metal, a sheet-metal subcontractor at a Suffolk Community College construction site, was cited after its employees worked amid concrete-block and brick debris and in building areas without the required firefighting equipment. The company also had not posted the required OSHA notice. The…
L. H. Sowles Company
Construction-site exposure citations affirmed
These consolidated cases involved three construction sites. At a North Dakota power plant, debris obstructed walkways and cutting waste fell through floor holes into an incompletely barricaded area; both nonserious items were affirmed, with a $45 penalty for housekeeping and none for falling…
Rayco Construction Company, Inc.
Repeat guardrail and housekeeping violations affirmed
Rayco employees worked on unguarded second- and third-floor levels in cold, gusty weather with ice, snow, and water on the surfaces. Some came within inches of floor edges or worked on beams outside the floors, facing falls of 12 to 24 feet. The second floor also contained lumber with protruding…
State, Incorporated
Guardrail item upheld with increased penalty
State, Incorporated performed construction work at a steel plant where a furnace eruption killed two employees working above the operating area. The judge vacated OSHA's general duty clause citation because the evidence did not establish that the charging operation presented a recognized hazard…
Underhill Construction Corp. and DIC Concrete, trading as DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Construction violations upheld with penalty reductions
DIC-Underhill was erecting concrete high-rise structures at a large New York construction site. A serious guardrail citation and $1,000 penalty became final because the company's notice of contest referred only to a later six-item nonserious citation. The judge merged a duplicate nonserious…
Frank Briscoe Company, Inc.
Construction citations partly upheld and partly vacated
Frank Briscoe was the general contractor for a multilevel building project where OSHA cited housekeeping, floor-opening, scaffold, ladder, fall-protection, and hard-hat conditions. The Commission vacated a general personal-protective-equipment item because OSHA did not identify or prove a feasible…
Brand Insulations, Inc.
Four construction violations and increased penalties affirmed
Brand Insulations supplied and installed insulation at an Ohio power-plant construction project. The violations involved debris outside a fabrication shop, materials obstructing narrow passageways, employees using a high runway plank with only a rope rail on one side, and employees working from…
Huber, Hunt & Nichols, Inc. and Blount Brothers Corporation, a Joint Venture
Superdome citations affirmed
The joint venture was general contractor for construction of the Louisiana Superdome, with about 350 employees and numerous subcontractors at the site. The Commission affirmed two serious citations and eighteen additional items covering perimeter and opening guards, personal protective equipment…
Otis Elevator Company
Subcontractor held responsible for accessible site hazards
Otis Elevator installed elevators in a 26-story office building where its employees had access to debris, missing elevator-shaft toeboards, and an inadequately guarded executive-elevator floor opening. Otis argued that other subcontractors created the debris and that the general contractor was…
Anning-Johnson Company
Multi-employer subcontractor defenses defined
Anning-Johnson was a drywall and ceiling subcontractor whose employees encountered unguarded floors and stairs, debris, and missing fire extinguishers at construction projects in Florida and Georgia. The company did not create or control the cited conditions and had complained to the general…
Gumina Building & Construction Co.
Mixed construction-site ruling affirmed
Gumina was the general contractor on a college construction project where employees worked without hard hats, debris created tripping hazards, and oxygen cylinders were not secured upright. A separate eye-protection item was vacated because the evidence did not establish that safety glasses were…
DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Perimeter-guarding and housekeeping violations affirmed
DIC-Underhill performed structural concrete work on a New York City apartment building. The first and second floor edges were unguarded, with drops greater than six feet, and employees worked on both levels. The Commission held that the general perimeter-guarding standard applied to concrete…
Bechtel Power Corporation
Construction-manager safety violations affirmed
Bechtel managed construction of a Missouri power plant but did not perform craft labor. Its engineers, timekeepers, safety representatives, and other employees regularly worked throughout the construction site. The Commission held that this management and inspection work was directly tied to…
Star Circle Wall Systems, Inc.
Three site-hazard items affirmed, four vacated
Star Circle Wall Systems worked on a New York City construction project where debris obstructed work areas and stairways and materials were dropped more than 20 feet without an enclosed chute. The judge found that the company's employees worked throughout the buildings and were exposed to those…
W. J. Barney Corporation
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the W. J. Barney Corporation case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The attached judge's decision concerned a construction manager whose employees regularly inspected and traversed a construction site. The judge found the company subject to…
Urban Builders, Inc.
Citations affirmed despite incorrect company name
Urban Builders was the general contractor for an apartment project cited for two serious violations and multiple nonserious violations. OSHA mistakenly addressed the citations to Urban Developers, Inc., a different corporate name. Urban Builders' president had attended the inspection conferences…
Metro-Mechanical, Inc.
Scaffold and housekeeping citations affirmed
An OSHA compliance officer saw a worker on a mobile scaffold that lacked guardrails and positive-locking casters. Metro-Mechanical did not deny the scaffold conditions, but disputed whether the worker was its employee. The Commission held that the officer could rely on the job foreman's…
Bob McCaslin Steel Erection Company
Related companies treated as one employer
Workers at an airport construction site were exposed to debris with protruding nails, unguarded floor holes, and unguarded elevated platforms. They were nominally employed by Bob McCaslin Anchor Company, while OSHA cited Bob McCaslin Steel Erection Company. The judge treated the two corporations as…
Robert E. Lee Plumbers, Inc.
Exposing subcontractor held liable for site hazards
Robert E. Lee Plumbers was the plumbing subcontractor on a project involving four six-story residential buildings. Its employees had to move throughout the site and were exposed to debris, unguarded wall openings, and stairways without railings. The Commission held that the company could be cited…
Wilmorite, Inc.
Construction citations withdrawn with prejudice
Wilmorite was adding six floors to an existing building in Syracuse, New York. OSHA cited an unguarded tenth-floor perimeter, a short ladder extension, unguarded floor and ladderway openings, and construction debris. The judge vacated the citations after finding, among other things, that the…
E. C. Ernst, Inc.
Delayed hard-hat item vacated, housekeeping affirmed
OSHA inspected Ernst's electrical work at a multi-employer construction site and issued a citation 69 days later. The hard-hat item involved an employee who left Ernst before the citation issued and could not later be located. The Commission affirmed vacation of that item because the delay…
Johns Manville Sales Corporation
Housekeeping and fire-protection items affirmed
Johns Manville employees worked on a construction floor containing scrap lumber with protruding nails, combustible debris, and inadequate fire-protection coverage. The judge affirmed one housekeeping item for $30 and held that two additional debris and container allegations merged into that same…
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.