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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Jerry Bennett Masonry Contractor, Inc.
Scaffold and chemical-safety violations affirmed
Three Jerry Bennett Masonry employees fell 30 to 35 feet when the outriggers supporting a suspended scaffold slipped from beneath their counterweights. The judge found that the person assigned to erect the scaffold lacked the training and knowledge required of a competent person. Required tiebacks…
Dynamic Painting Corp.
Three fall and water-safety items vacated, ring-buoy item affirmed
Dynamic Painting employees worked on a bridge and suspended scaffold above water at a Bay Shore, New York, site. The judge vacated the fall-protection item because the compliance officer gave inconsistent testimony about when the photographs were taken, where the employee was located, and whether…
Imageries
Default order upheld after repeated failures to respond
OSHA cited Imageries after an employee on a two-point suspension scaffold was not wearing a safety belt attached to a lifeline and after finding that the company lacked a written hazard communication program. The employee fell to his death, and the company president stated that the employee was his…
F. A. Gray, Inc.
Roof safety-belt item affirmed, scaffold item vacated
F. A. Gray employees painted a hotel exterior from a two-point suspension scaffold and from the edge of a 60-foot-high flat roof without safety belts. Both Commission members agreed to vacate the scaffold item because the employer had communicated and enforced a belt rule, supervisors inspected…
Mel Jarvis Construction Co.
Scaffold lifeline violation held non-willful
Two employees died when their suspended scaffold and its rooftop supports fell 105 feet. Their safety belts were tied to the scaffold's hoisting mechanism, so they fell with the entire system. The Commission held that lifelines had to be independent of every part of the scaffold and supporting…
Western Waterproofing Co., Inc.
Scaffold citations affirmed after court remand
Western Waterproofing employees worked from a suspended scaffold between the tenth and eleventh floors of a building, with another employee stationed on a patio below. The scaffold lacked required protection on open sides and ends, and one worker fell five stories from its front. The Commission…
Western Waterproofing Co., Inc.
Willful scaffold penalty set at $8,000 after court remand
Western Waterproofing employees worked on noncomplying suspension scaffolds 17 to 47 feet above the ground. An appeals court upheld willful violations involving missing safety-belt lifelines, failure to lash the scaffolds to the building, and missing toeboards, but rejected the Commission’s earlier…
Combustion Engineering, Inc.
Commission affirms scaffold, ladder-access, and fall-protection violations at a power plant repair job
Combustion Engineering was doing metal repair work at the Navajo Generating Station in Page, Arizona, when an April 1976 OSHA inspection produced citations. The company contested three nonserious items and one serious item. Administrative Law Judge James A. Cronin Jr. sustained all of them…
Western Waterproofing Co., Inc.
Five suspension-scaffold items affirmed
Western Waterproofing employees sprayed a building from a two-point suspension scaffold supported by outrigger beams at heights up to 22 feet. The judge found that the outrigger supports lacked required bearing, anchorage, and bracing, and that the scaffold lacked a secondary tieback, safety belts…
Southwestern Acoustics & Specialty, Inc.
Scaffold item made serious and light-guard item remanded
Southwestern Acoustics installed acoustical and drywall materials at a school auditorium construction project. Employees used a two-point suspension scaffold about 25 feet above the ground without safety belts attached to lifelines. The Commission held that the scaffold met the regulatory…
Central Building and Cleaning Co., Inc.
Scaffold and protective-equipment violations affirmed
An employee sandblasted from a two-point suspension scaffold 24 feet above a Chicago sidewalk. The judge found that the cornice hooks were securely installed, but the scaffold was improperly tied to window-cleaner anchors, the sandblaster lacked a safety belt and lifeline, and required rails and…
Ace Window Cleaning Co.
Scaffold lifeline and first-aid violations affirmed
Ace Window Cleaning employees used a suspended scaffold while cleaning windows on a Milwaukee building. The judge found a repeated scaffold violation because one lifeline did not extend far enough to protect employees working on lower floors, and two earlier uncontested citations involved the same…
A. C. Gonzalez Painting Contractors, Inc.
Ninth-floor lifeline violation affirmed
A. C. Gonzalez Painting Contractors had two employees painting from a two-point suspension scaffold at the ninth floor of a motel. Neither employee wore a safety belt attached to a lifeline, and no belts or lifelines were available at the scaffold. The Commission held that the lifeline requirement…
Elmer Vath, Painting Contractor
Lifeline and fatality-reporting violations affirmed
Elmer Vath hired two painters to paint a building cornice from a two-point suspended scaffold and supplied the scaffold materials. One painter fell about 60 feet and died after a supporting beam slipped; he had removed his safety belt shortly before the incident. The judge found that the painter…
The Austin Co., Inc.
Scaffold and ladder violations affirmed
The Austin Company was constructing a hospital addition where two employees worked from a suspension scaffold without safety belts or lifelines. Two other employees worked on a 12-foot scaffold without guardrails. The judge treated those conditions as a serious violation and assessed $550. He…
Painting Unlimited, Inc.
Unsafe access upheld, ladder side-rail item vacated
Painting Unlimited was spray-painting bridge girders from a scaffold more than 40 feet above the ground. Employees had to hoist themselves about four feet from the scaffold to the girder because no suitable ladder, stairway, ramp, or runway provided safe access. The Commission affirmed that access…
Brisk Waterproofing Company, Inc.
Scaffold access charge amended and $1,200 assessed
Brisk employees performed caulking work from two suspended scaffolds 18 stories above the ground. An employee moved between them around a pylon and across an open gap without a safety belt, and three employees occupied a scaffold rated for no more than two workers. The Commission held that OSHA…
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.