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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Pullman Power, LLC
Controlling-employer claims reinstated and remanded
Pullman Power was a contractor at a West Virginia power-plant construction project where a specialty subcontractor fabricated fiberglass-reinforced plastic liners. OSHA alleged excessive styrene exposure and use of flammable liquid within 50 feet of an ignition source, asserting that Pullman was…
Elliot Construction Corp.
Carbon monoxide violations affirmed as willful
Elliot Construction used gas-powered equipment for an indoor concrete pour, and four employees reported feeling ill from carbon monoxide exposure. Two employees were diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning. The foreman knew the equipment produced carbon monoxide and recognized the employees'…
Icarus Industrial Painting & Contracting Co., Inc.
Eight serious health-protection violations affirmed
Icarus removed paint and repainted an Ohio bridge using an enclosed abrasive-blasting operation. OSHA alleged numerous violations involving lead, inorganic arsenic, respirators, protective clothing, medical monitoring, and hazard communication. The judge vacated most items because air-sampling…
Atlas Central Corporation
Bridge-painting citations split over dust, lead, and cadmium controls
Atlas Central Corporation removed paint from a Cleveland bridge by abrasive blasting inside a ventilated containment. OSHA cited employee exposure to lead, total dust, and cadmium, along with deficiencies in exposure controls, monitoring, written programs, housekeeping, and training. Judge Ken S…
Jewell Painting, Inc.
Lead-paint bridge job, serious items cut to nonserious, water-cooler general-duty item vacated
Jewell Painting removed lead paint from a bridge over the Androscoggin River in Gilead, Maine, then repainted it. After an August 1992 OSHA inspection of the cleanup phase, the agency issued a serious citation and an other-than-serious citation covering nonpotable-water labeling, lead-dust exposure…
E. Smalis Painting Co., Inc.
Bridge-painting citations settled for $50,000
E. Smalis Painting was repainting the Tarentum Bridge in Pennsylvania when OSHA inspected the worksite. OSHA issued three citations alleging one willful, nine serious, and two other-than-serious violations, with proposed penalties totaling $75,000. The parties agreed that the company would withdraw…
Morrison-Knudsen Co., Inc./Yonkers Contracting Co., Inc., A Joint Venture
Willful lead-protection violations draw $40,000
A Morrison-Knudsen and Yonkers Contracting joint venture used cutting torches to demolish a lead-painted bridge in New York City, exposing employees to hazardous airborne lead. The Commission held that the construction air-contaminant standards applied alongside the more specific welding and…
J.L. Manta Plant Services Company
Coke-oven citations vacated and late amendment denied
J.L. Manta, a construction and maintenance contractor at a steel plant, was cited under the coke-oven emissions standard. The judge vacated the citations because that standard could not validly be applied to a non-coke-oven employer under the governing court decision. On review, the Secretary…
Environmental Utilities Corp.
Trench violation reclassified as serious
Environmental Utilities installed sewer pipe in trenches in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Two employees remained in the Marietta Pike trench after two of three trench jacks were removed, leaving the trench inadequately protected from a cave-in. The Commission changed the judge's classification from…
Corbin Lavoy, d/b/a Empire Boring Co.
Serious toluene-exposure and safety-program violations affirmed
Empire Boring employees manually excavated inside a 42-inch steel casing extending beneath railroad tracks in an area contaminated by toluene. The employer had been warned that toluene fumes were present and that workers needed gas masks, but the site had only dust masks and no effective safety…
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.