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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W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co., Inc., Hvy. Div.
Supervisor-knowledge issue remanded
Yates employees installed grass matting on a slope above a 65-foot drop. The foreman worked without fall protection, while two crew members wore their harnesses backward with the foreman's permission. The judge affirmed two serious fall-protection items and assessed $9,000 in total penalties. The…
W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co., Inc., Heavy Division
Slope fall-protection violations affirmed
A Yates crew installed grass matting on a slope ending at a 65-foot drop. The foreman worked without any fall protection, while two crew members wore their harnesses backward with the foreman's permission because the supplied lanyards were too short for the work. The judge found that the foreman's…
S. E. Johnson Companies, Inc.
Defective guardrail violations resulted in $7,500 in penalties
S. E. Johnson employees replaced a missing guardrail section on a bridge work platform with a single two-by-four tied to columns with wire. A subcontractor employee leaned or sat against the rail, it slipped from the wire, and he fell 17 feet and sustained severe injuries. The judge vacated the…
Hensel Phelps Construction Co. and its successors
Fall-protection violations affirmed with reduced penalty
OSHA observed Hensel Phelps employees working more than 25 feet above a lower level with deficient fall protection. The cited conditions included work before guardrails were properly installed, a guardrail that deflected below the required height, unflagged wire-rope rails, and floor-hole exposure…
General Property Services, Inc. a/k/a GPS Roofing Services
Training items affirmed, fall-protection item vacated
General Property Services contracted to replace deteriorated sections of a warehouse roof in Forest Park, Georgia. The judge found that GPS was the employer of the roofing crew because its officers supervised and inspected the work, it held crew leaders out as GPS officers, and it retained…
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.