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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C Pacific Corporation, dba Five Star Builders
Three scaffold violations affirmed with a grouped penalty
C Pacific Corporation was a construction subcontractor installing aluminum cladding on a car dealership in Puerto Rico, Saipan. OSHA found employees working on a four-level scaffold with incomplete planking, missing stair rails, and missing guardrails, creating fall exposures of 5 to 20 feet. The…
Brady SoCal, Inc.
One scaffold guardrail violation affirmed and two allegations vacated
Brady SoCal supplied a scaffold for its framing and drywall work at a casino renovation where an employee of another subcontractor later fell from the roof and died. OSHA cited Brady for an inadequate scaffold inspection and for missing guardrails at two locations. The judge declined to apply…
Tutor Perini Building Corp.
Scaffold guardrail citation vacated for lack of employer knowledge
Tutor Perini was the general contractor for a casino expansion where OSHA found guardrails missing from two upper scaffold platforms. The condition was unrelated to the fatal roof fall that prompted the inspection. OSHA cited Tutor Perini as the controlling employer under 29 C.F.R. §…
Houran USA Construction, LLC
Three serious construction citations affirmed
Houran USA Construction renovated a three-story building using a four-tier scaffold. OSHA cited the company after an inspector observed an employee without a hard hat below scaffold work, employees using a scaffold with a missing guardrail about 24 feet above the ground, and an access ladder that…
Elite Builders, Inc.
Fall and forklift violations partly affirmed
Elite Builders was a residential roofing contractor inspected at two Nebraska worksites where employees worked on elevated roofs without conventional fall protection. At the second site, employees were lifted on an oversized, unguarded personnel platform attached to a rough-terrain forklift…
Samsson Construction, Incorporated
Scaffold violations affirmed with $30,000 in penalties
Samsson Construction was the general contractor for a Florida retail construction project where employees used an incompletely planked scaffold without required guardrails and climbed the scaffold frame for access. A stucco-crew supervisor knew the planking and guardrail setup did not comply with…
Jesse Remodeling, LLC
Willful scaffold item and three serious items affirmed
Jesse Remodeling employees worked on a 13-foot-high scaffold while filling concrete block cells at a restaurant construction site. The scaffold lacked guardrails, two employees worked from its frame and cross braces, and employees used cross braces and uprights to descend. A concrete Grout Hog…
Applied Masonry, Inc.
Repeat scaffold access and planking items affirmed
Applied Masonry used fabricated-frame scaffolds while renovating a city courthouse. An employee climbed cross braces to reach an upper platform and walked across platforms that were not fully planked. The judge rejected the company's claim that the scaffold was being dismantled because the employee…
International Masonry, Inc.
Scaffold citations produced a mixed result and $4,000 penalty
Three International Masonry employees fell about 37 feet when a scaffold platform supported by a modified corner bracket collapsed. One employee died and another was seriously injured. The Secretary withdrew four items, and the judge vacated allegations involving a damaged bracket, ladder…
Orlowski Company, Inc.
Stairway and willful fall-protection penalties totaled $56,600
Orlowski Company admitted one serious stairway violation and two willful fall-protection violations at a Chicago construction site, contesting only the penalty amounts. Employees used stairways without handrails, a foreman performed masonry work on an unguarded scaffold more than 12 feet high, and…
The Samuels Group, Inc.
Missing scaffold top rail resulted in a $1,000 penalty
The Samuels Group used a scaffold for masonry work approximately 60 feet above the ground. Its cross-bracing was about 32 inches high, which could not substitute for the required top rail, and stacked masonry blocks were neither high nor stable enough to serve as equivalent guarding. The judge…
Horizon Homes, Inc.
Settlement mistake issue remanded
Horizon was the general contractor at a worksite where OSHA cited an alleged scaffold guardrail violation. The company signed a settlement that left the guardrail item in place, even though it said the same item against a subcontractor had been withdrawn because the scaffold height did not trigger…
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…
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…
Seedorff Masonry, Inc.
Scaffold violations affirmed with reduced classification and penalty
Seedorff Masonry employees worked on a scaffold about 19 to 20 feet above the ground. A materials platform blocked the normal ladder access, and a mason's tender used an unguarded end of the work platform and worked within three feet of that edge. The judge affirmed the guardrail violation as…
Metric Constructors, Inc.
Scaffold guardrail violations affirmed
Metric was the general contractor for an Army barracks project where its masonry subcontractor used scaffolds with missing or deficient fall protection. The judge held Metric responsible as the controlling employer because it conducted daily inspections, paid for the scaffolding, and could require…
Midwest Masonry Inc., and its successors
Scaffold midrail violation reclassified as repeated
Midwest employees stocked bricks, a masonry saw, and other materials on a scaffold platform about 13 feet above the ground before midrails were installed. The judge affirmed the violation as serious and assessed $100, reasoning that the employees were only stocking the platform and Midwest believed…
G. Porter and Company
Commission approves a settlement and sets aside the ALJ scaffold decision to the extent inconsistent
G. Porter and Company is a masonry subcontractor. OSHA inspected a Chicago-area construction site in February 1999 and cited Porter for a serious scaffolding violation: employees were working on a scaffold that lacked the required guardrails, exposing them to falls of roughly 18 to 20 feet. After…
A. Hansen Masonry, Inc.
Repeat scaffold violation affirmed, forklift item vacated
A. Hansen Masonry performed construction work in San Antonio, Texas. OSHA observed an employee making repeated trips on a twelve-foot scaffold whose southwest corner lacked guardrails, and the employee used no other fall protection. The judge found employer knowledge because the foreman knew the…
New Age International
Scaffold violations affirmed with reduced penalties totaling $825
New Age International performed masonry and stucco work at a San Antonio U-Haul project where two workers used an incompletely planked rolling scaffold without proper access or full guardrails. New Age argued that the workers belonged to an independent subcontractor, but Judge Stanley M. Schwartz…
Engineered Construction Systems, Inc.
General contractor liable for subcontractor fall hazards
Engineered Construction Systems was the general contractor for a quick-lube building project in Colorado. OSHA observed masonry employees working on scaffolds more than 10 feet high without guardrails and workers near unguarded floor pits almost eight feet deep. The judge held the general…
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.