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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O.K. Construction Company, Inc.
Crane, hard-hat, and recordkeeping items affirmed with penalties reduced
O.K. Construction was performing excavation work with a crawler crane at a West Virginia lift-station project. The judge affirmed a repeated fire-extinguisher violation and nonserious items involving missing crane information, an unbarricaded swing radius, absent annual-inspection records, an…
D & H Pump Service, Inc.
Excavation and barricade violations affirmed
D & H Pump Service performed work in a 14-foot-deep excavation whose nearly vertical sides had begun sloughing and collapsing. The judge found that the company's working vice president and a borrowed equipment operator were protected employees, or alternatively were workers exposed to hazards that…
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…
Wes Construction Corporation
Trench and traffic-control violations affirmed with reduced penalties
Wes Construction was performing pipe work in a cavity that was 12 feet wide, 15 feet long, and 9 feet deep near heavy traffic in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The Commission held that the cavity qualified as a trench even though it was wider than it was deep. Three sides were vertical, the roadside…
Water Works Installation Corp.
Trench violations affirmed with increased penalties
Water Works Installation employees worked in a 9-foot-deep trench in hard or compact soil that was not shored, sloped, or otherwise protected. The site also involved employees without hard hats and a person standing beneath a load handled by a hoist. The judge affirmed a serious trench-support…
W. L. Cobb Construction Co.
Excavation citations reduced to two nonserious violations
W. L. Cobb installed storm-drain pipe in an opening that was wider than it was deep and therefore qualified as an excavation rather than a trench. The judge vacated the trench-specific ladder and unstable-soil citations, including two proposed willful penalties totaling $6,615. He affirmed a…
Puterbaugh Enterprises, Inc.
Trench and recordkeeping violations affirmed
Puterbaugh Enterprises laid sewer pipe in a trench about ten feet deep and two feet wide with vertical walls and no shoring, bracing, sheeting, or sloping. The trench caved in and killed an employee who had returned to resume pipe-laying work. The Commission affirmed the serious trench violation…
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.