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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Precision Refractory Services
Scaffold-alteration item vacated and falling-object item affirmed
Precision Refractory Services performed fireproof-brick work inside a furnace in Cantonment, Florida. The company assigned an employee to clean debris on the ground below workers handling bricks and tools on a scaffold 12 to 14 feet above him, and a scaffold component fell and fractured his wrist…
Palacios Marine & Industrial Coating, Inc.
Six scaffold-related citation items vacated
Palacios Marine employees were erecting a scaffold-based shelter at a Texas petrochemical plant when a wooden plank broke and a scaffold builder fell seven feet, suffering broken bones that required reconstructive surgery. OSHA cited the company for alleged failures involving employer-provided and…
Midwest Steel, Inc.
Scaffold items affirmed after fatal fall
A Midwest Steel ironworker fell 33 feet from a temporary platform while welding steel columns at a hospital construction project and died. The judge vacated allegations concerning the worker’s synthetic lanyard because OSHA did not prove the cited heat-related hazard under the general duty clause…
Safway Scaffolding d/b/a Safway Services, LP
Untrained scaffold dismantler item affirmed after fall
Safway erected and dismantled extensive scaffolding inside an aircraft hangar. A ground-crew laborer without scaffold-dismantling training was allowed by his crew leader to join the dismantling work, then fell about 21 feet after tying off to a horizontal bar that dislodged. The judge found the…
NLJ Builders, Inc.
Controlling contractor held responsible for unsafe scaffold
NLJ Builders subcontracted carpentry work at a Florida bank project and supplied the subcontractor with a scaffold owned by NLJ. A subcontractor employee worked about 15 feet above the ground on a platform that was less than half planked, lacked a firm base and guardrails, and had not been erected…
Virginia Construction & Management Company, Inc.
Willful canopy fall violation affirmed
Two Virginia Construction employees chipped concrete on a canopy 16 feet 7 inches above a sidewalk without fall protection, safety-toe footwear, hard hats, or eye protection. They accessed the canopy by climbing an inadequately configured scaffold, and the company lacked qualified scaffold…
Standard Building Company, Inc., and Standard Systems, Inc.
Three items affirmed against one company and all items vacated against the other
Standard Building managed a restaurant renovation, and Standard Systems was identified as a related stucco contractor. The judge found that a subcontractor owner acted in part as Standard Building's site superintendent but lacked scaffold and powered-industrial-truck safety training. Standard…
Joseph Watson, d/b/a Joseph Watson Masonry
Employer receives $11,275 EAJA fee award
Joseph Watson Masonry sought attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act after prevailing on parts of an OSHA case involving scaffold, fall-protection, training, and recordkeeping citations. The Commission had ruled that the Secretary lacked substantial justification only for one ladder…
Cipriano Martinez d/b/a Martinez Masonry
Illness did not excuse late contest and $38,000 penalty
OSHA issued Martinez Masonry serious, repeat, and other-than-serious citations involving scaffolds and hazard communication. The owner filed the notice of contest after the 15-working-day deadline and argued that flu-like symptoms prevented timely action. The medical records did not show that he…
Joseph Watson, D/B/A Joseph Watson Masonry
Attorney-fee case partly reversed and remanded
Joseph Watson Masonry sought fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act after several construction citations were vacated, reclassified, or assessed at lower penalties. The Commission held that an employer can be a prevailing party on a discrete issue when it succeeds in reducing a…
Benson Associates
Scaffold foundation, inspection, and fall-protection items affirmed
Benson Associates used a pump-jack scaffold and planks 13 to 14 feet above the ground while installing soffit and fascia on a Denver house. OSHA found that the scaffold legs lacked proper base plates and that the makeshift fall protection consisted of an Alumibench and boards attached with…
Stuck in the Mud
Scaffold violations affirmed after jurisdiction challenge
Thomas Slingluff, doing business as Stuck in the Mud, performed stucco work from an inadequately protected scaffold in Colorado. He admitted the scaffold conditions but argued that he was not an employer engaged in commerce and therefore was outside the OSH Act. The judge found that Slingluff hired…
AJP Construction, Inc.
Fall and scaffold violations resulted in $87,400 in penalties
AJP Construction performed concrete superstructure work at a residential construction site in Hoboken, New Jersey. OSHA conducted one inspection after a referral and another after falling form material struck an outrigger scaffold, causing it to collapse and killing an employee. The judge affirmed…
Inglett & Stubbs, Inc.
Mishandled citation did not excuse late contest
Inglett & Stubbs was an electrical contractor whose employee died after being caught between a scissor lift guardrail and a structure. OSHA cited the company for moving the lift without a competent person and for inadequate scissor-lift training. The citation reached the company's office, but it…
McDevitt Street Bovis, Inc.
General contractor liable for a subcontractor's scaffold violations
McDevitt Street Bovis was the general contractor building a two-story medical center in Douglas, Georgia. During a 1997 inspection, OSHA found that a scaffold used by employees of subcontractor CPD Plastering was not fully planked, lacked cross-bracing, guardrails, and safe access, and had not been…
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…
Easthaven Masonry, Inc.
Denial of E-Z Trial procedure reversed
Easthaven Masonry requested the Commission's simplified E-Z Trial procedure for a scaffold case. The Secretary objected only that some discovery might be needed, and the Chief Administrative Law Judge denied the request. The Commission held that the stated need for discovery was not enough 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.