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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Arrow Plumbing, LLC
Three excavation violations affirmed, spoil-pile item vacated
Arrow Plumbing replaced a residential sewer line in Grain Valley, Missouri, using an excavation more than nine feet deep. Its owner and project supervisor worked inside without hard hats, with exposed utilities and a near-vertical wall but no trench box or other cave-in protection. The judge…
D.R.B. Boring Drilling Company
Five serious trench violations affirmed
D.R.B. performed boring work from a trench approximately 9 feet deep with vertical, unprotected walls. The judge rejected the owner's claim that the business was a sole proprietorship without employees, finding under the economic realities test that a worker the owner paid and directed was D.R.B.'s…
P. Gioioso & Sons, Inc.
Trench safety violations affirmed
P. Gioioso & Sons was installing water lines in Winthrop, Massachusetts, when OSHA inspectors saw a foreman and another employee inside an unprotected trench. A suspended pipe passed over the employees, and their access ladder extended only 12 inches above street level. The judge affirmed serious…
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review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.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.