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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A. J. McNulty & Company, Inc.
Mixed ruling on fall protection during precast concrete erection
A. J. McNulty & Company was erecting a precast concrete parking garage in White Plains, New York, when OSHA cited numerous fall-protection and other safety violations. The Commission rejected McNulty's request to exclude inspection evidence, finding that OSHA substantially honored the company's…
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…
Franklin E. Skepton
Twelve construction-safety violations affirmed
Franklin E. Skepton was the general contractor for a high-school addition in Pennsylvania. OSHA cited conditions including unguarded floor and wall openings, missing hard hats, unsafe compressed-gas handling, unprotected electrical equipment, unstable and unguarded scaffolds, improper gasoline…
Classic Homes Div. of Elite, Inc.
Fall-protection items affirmed, penalties reduced to $1,600
Classic Homes was the general contractor for a house under construction in Colorado Springs. A roofing subcontractor's employees worked on a 17-foot-high roof without the required catch platform and near second-floor wall openings without adequate guardrails. Classic Homes argued that it did not…
J.A. Jones Construction Co.
Commission affirms item-specific fall-protection penalties
This case returned to the Commission after an earlier decision affirmed numerous serious, rather than willful, fall-protection violations at J.A. Jones Construction's Chicago high-rise project and remanded for item-specific penalties. On remand, the ALJ evaluated the fall distance, degree of…
Kulka Construction Management Corp.
Construction manager held liable for fall hazards
Kulka Construction Management managed a three-story office-building project without performing construction trade labor itself. The Commission found that Kulka substantially supervised the work because it coordinated contractors, acted as the owner's on-site representative, addressed safety…
Kenneth P. Thompson Co., Inc.
Fire and fall items mostly affirmed, roof-storage item vacated
The masonry subcontractor faced several citations at a motel construction project. The Commission affirmed fire-extinguisher requirements for a gasoline refueling area and an LP-gas storage location, an uncovered floor-hole item, and serious wall-opening items. It reduced the storage-trailer access…
Constructora Maza, Inc.
Safety-belt violation reclassified as willful-serious
Constructora Maza, Inc. employees worked near an unguarded wall opening on the sixteenth floor without safety belts or other protective equipment. The Commission allowed OSHA to amend the alleged violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a) from repeated to willful because the standard, facts, and means of…
Crest Mechanical Construction Co.
Wall-opening citation affirmed
Crest was a plumbing subcontractor whose employees were exposed to unguarded wall openings on a multi-employer construction site. The company did not create or control the openings and argued that union and contractual limits prevented it from installing guards. The Commission held that a…
Zwicker Electric Company
Building-opening and stairway charges vacated for lack of employee access
Zwicker Electric Company was an electrical subcontractor working in two 20-story buildings at a Brooklyn construction project. OSHA cited unguarded lobby door and window openings beside deep exterior ditches and two stairways without railings. The Commission found that OSHA's inspector gave…
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…
Beall Construction Co.
Construction penalties reduced to $620
Beall Construction was the general contractor on a 12-story building project and faced serious, other-than-serious, and failure-to-abate allegations with proposed penalties totaling $35,442. The Commission adopted the judge's mixed disposition of the citations, including a serious violation for a…
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.