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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Manganas Painting Co., Inc.
Lead and fall-protection items partly affirmed
Manganas removed lead-based paint from two bridges using abrasive blasting inside canvas containments. OSHA cited the company for lead monitoring, shower, and medical-surveillance violations, as well as numerous fall-protection hazards. The Commission upheld the inspection warrant and found that…
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…
Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting Co., Inc.
Off-site surveillance challenge rejected
An OSHA compliance officer observed and videotaped employees dismantling an exterior hoist without fall protection, first from a public plaza and then from a federal courthouse roof. Regional Scaffolding argued that the surveillance violated the Fourth Amendment and the OSH Act's credential and…
Armstrong Steel Erectors, Inc.
Commission affirms four fall and impalement violations on bridge project
Armstrong Steel Erectors, Inc. was widening and rehabilitating an Interstate 70 bridge in Ohio. The Commission affirmed four serious violations involving unguarded planks used as runways between girders, unguarded painters' picks used as scaffolds, unguarded concrete pier tops used as work…
Whitacre Engineering Co.
Unguarded runway and exposed rebar produce $4,125
Whitacre Engineering Co. installed reinforcing steel for a steel-mill foundation project in Mansfield, Ohio. Employees crossed a 28-inch-wide aluminum runway that lacked a guardrail on one side, and Whitacre neither asked the general contractor to correct it nor used alternative protection. The…
RGM Construction Company
Four bridge-safety items affirmed and two vacated
RGM Construction Company was widening a Texas bridge when OSHA cited fall-protection and water-safety conditions. The Commission affirmed a serious fall-protection item because tying a lanyard to an unsecured work platform could pull the platform down with a falling employee. It also affirmed items…
Pace Construction Corporation
Hoist door item reclassified, runway item affirmed for $100
Pace was the general contractor for an 18-story building and extended a personnel hoist to the roof so workers could carry tools and materials safely. At the roof landing, the company used a single 2-by-4 gate about 3.5 feet high instead of the required 6.5-foot hoistway door, and the short runway…
Metro Electric, Inc.
Serious guardrail violation affirmed
Metro Electric was cited for a serious violation of the guardrail standard at 29 C.F.R. § 1926.500(d)(2). The administrative law judge affirmed the citation and assessed a $50 penalty. After reviewing the record and the parties' arguments, the Commission agreed with the judge's reasoning and…
Weisblatt Electric Company, Inc.
Multi-employer fall-hazard citations vacated
Weisblatt, an elevator subcontractor, sent two employees to a renovation site to determine whether conditions had improved enough for work to resume. They encountered unguarded openings, floors, ramps, stairs, and unfilled pan-type stair treads that Weisblatt neither created nor controlled. The…
John T. Brady & Co., Inc.
Entrance-canopy general duty citation vacated
OSHA alleged that John T. Brady should have installed canopies over entrances to protect workers from objects falling from crane loads and upper building levels. The Commission held that the general duty clause was unavailable because specific construction provisions addressed crane loads…
National Industrial Constructors, Inc.
Power-plant construction violations resolved
The Commission reviewed numerous fall-protection, trenching, machine, electrical, scaffold, ladder, fire-extinguisher, and equipment-alarm items from construction of a Nebraska power plant. It rejected dismissal for delayed citation issuance because the employer did not prove prejudice. It held…
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…
Kehm Construction Co.
Scaffold violation upgraded to willful
Kehm employees worked more than 20 feet above the ground on a scaffold and connecting runway that lacked required guardrails, midrails, and toeboards. The general contractor and another subcontractor repeatedly warned Kehm's vice president and foreman about the scaffold deficiencies over several…
Coastal Pile Driving, Inc.
Fall-protection amendment and violation affirmed
Coastal Pile Driving employees worked on steel beams about 25 feet above an excavated area without railings, safety belts, or lanyards. OSHA originally cited a runway-guarding standard and added the personal-protective-equipment rule as an alternative in the complaint. The judge found that the…
Jensen Construction Co.
Runway and crane-barricade violations affirmed
Jensen employees crossed an unguarded plank suspended over bridge formwork, and employees also had access to the unbarricaded swing radius of an operating crane. The Commission treated the plank as a runway because employees used it as a passageway, even though it was not designed for that purpose…
Scioto Erectors, Inc.
Divided Commission leaves the ALJ's safety-net vacatur standing as the final order
Scioto Erectors was a steel erection subcontractor on a construction project in Marion, Ohio, where employees put up roof joists and cross-bracing about 60 feet up. The workers wore safety belts and tied off while welding and bolting, but not while moving between spots, stringing welding leads, or…
Olson Construction Co.
Multi-employer guarding citations largely affirmed
Olson was a prime contractor on a state office-building project and controlled worksite safety, including the installation of guarding devices. OSHA cited missing guardrails, uncovered floor holes, unfilled stair pans, open-sided floors, and other fall hazards accessible to workers from several…
Williams Enterprises, Inc.
Bridge fall citation remained vacated
Williams employees performed steel work more than 25 feet above the ground on an unfinished bridge. Plank decking installed by the general contractor covered the spaces between girders, but an opening existed directly behind a Williams foreman. The Commission accepted the judge's credibility…
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…
Big '6' Drilling Company
Rig citations remanded for further evidence
Big '6' Drilling received eight nonserious citations and one serious general-duty citation after an inspection of an oil and gas drilling rig. Its pro se notice focused on the $805 proposed penalties, but its later answer requested a hearing about the inspection and penalties. The Commission…
Granite-Groves, A Joint Venture
Excavation walkway and impalement violations affirmed
Granite-Groves was constructing a metro tunnel in a District of Columbia excavation that was 50 to 60 feet deep. Employees regularly crossed unguarded steel wales and struts about 50 feet above the bottom without safety belts, and vertically protruding reinforcing steel was below their work area…
Baxter Electric Company
Commission leaves four subcontractors' citation vacaturs in place
Baxter Electric Company, Wentz Plumbing and Heating, Tri Sales Associates, and H. H. Robertson Company were subcontractors on construction of the State Office Building in Lincoln, Nebraska. OSHA cited each for alleged fall, floor-opening, guardrail, toeboard, and hollow-pan stair hazards under…
The Pioneer Company
Trench and retaining-wall violations affirmed
Pioneer employees worked in a narrow trench between a 15-foot retaining wall and a nearly vertical excavated hillside made of shattered shale, sandstone, fill, and seeping material. The trench had no adequate shoring or slope. Other employees, including a foreman, used the unguarded 18-inch-wide…
Brown and Root, Inc.
Serious items settled and scaffold-screen citation vacated
Brown and Root settled serious allegations involving an inadequately slung boiler pipe that fell about 140 feet, an uncovered floor opening, an unguarded winch platform, and an unguarded runway at the steam-drum level. Those items were affirmed under the settlement with a total $1,000 penalty. The…
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…
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…
Ringland-Johnson, Inc.
Fall-hazard citations affirmed with $605 in penalties
Ringland-Johnson employees poured concrete while standing on planks laid across a scaffold inside a circular concrete structure. Gaps between the planks were 30 to 40 inches wide, and employees could fall 19.5 feet; an elevated runway also lacked guardrails, and the scaffold had no ladder or…
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…
Allied Structural Steel Company
Crane swing-radius citation vacated by an equally divided Commission
Allied Structural Steel used a truck-mounted crane while shaking out steel beams at a power-station project. The crane's outriggers were fully extended and an oiler had been assigned to act as a flagman, but no physical barrier enclosed the rear swing radius. OSHA cited the company for failing to…
Alcap Electrical Corp.
Subcontractor citations affirmed for employee exposure
Alcap Electrical was an electrical subcontractor at a building project where employees encountered unguarded floor openings, unguarded stairs, unsecured gas cylinders, and other construction hazards. Alcap argued that it did not create or control the hazardous conditions. The Commission held that a…
Laster and Fingeret, Inc.
Penalties imposed for eight admitted construction violations
Laster and Fingeret was the general contractor at a building project and admitted three serious and five nonserious construction violations. The cited conditions included missing stair and perimeter railings, unguarded floor openings, fire-extinguisher and first-aid deficiencies, unsecured gas…
H. K. Ferguson Co.
Seven construction violations affirmed and two vacated
H. K. Ferguson was the contractor on a project to expand an Anheuser-Busch facility in Columbus, Ohio. The judge affirmed seven nonserious items involving debris, flammable-liquid storage, smoking warnings, compressed-gas cylinders, elevated runways, and safe access between elevations. He vacated 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.