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.
No decisions match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
Metric Constructors, Inc.
Hoist item reclassified and rebar item withdrawn
Metric Constructors used a material hoist while building a six-floor hospital addition in Clearwater, Florida. The judge affirmed items involving long material protruding from the hoist, an unprotected ground-level hoist entrance, unenclosed unused sides of the hoist tower, and exposed reinforcing…
Chapman Construction Co., Inc.
Repeated grounding and serious fall violations affirmed
A portable circular saw previously cited for lack of grounding again failed a continuity test, and employees used stairways and landings with missing or inadequate rails. The Commission held that inexpensive continuity testing would have revealed the saw's latent grounding defect through reasonable…
Masonry Contractors, Inc.
Fall-protection items affirmed and saw-grounding item vacated
Masonry Contractors employees worked on the seventh floor near unguarded shafts, floor holes, open sides, and a material-hoist landing. The subcontractor did not inspect the floor, warn its employees, request correction by the general contractor, or use realistic alternative protection, and it…
Underhill Construction Corp. and DIC Concrete Corp., trading as DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Safety-belt and hard-hat items upheld
Two DIC-Underhill employees grouted elevator sills near an unguarded shaft without properly secured safety belts. The Commission affirmed the personal-protective-equipment violation but vacated a separately pleaded lifeline-use provision because that provision did not require employees to use…
Vincent Rizzo, d/b/a Vincent Rizzo Construction Co. or Masoncraft, Inc.
Citations dismissed for naming the wrong employer
OSHA issued three serious construction citations totaling $1,500 against Vincent Rizzo and a company that had not performed the cited work. The notice of contest promptly stated that Masoncraft, Inc. was the correct employer, but the Secretary continued prosecuting Rizzo individually rather than…
Urban Builders, Inc.
Citations affirmed despite incorrect company name
Urban Builders was the general contractor for an apartment project cited for two serious violations and multiple nonserious violations. OSHA mistakenly addressed the citations to Urban Developers, Inc., a different corporate name. Urban Builders' president had attended the inspection conferences…
A.I. Smith Electrical Contractors, Inc.
Contest dismissed after failure to answer
OSHA cited A.I. Smith Electrical Contractors for open-sided-floor and hoistway-entrance violations and proposed a $250 penalty. The company timely contested but did not answer the Secretary's complaint. It also did not respond to the judge's order to explain the missing answer, so the judge…
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.