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.
C&C Erecting, Inc.
Settlement resolved steel-erection citations with no penalty
The case involved fall-protection training, aerial-lift, roof-opening, and steel-erection allegations at a Wisconsin construction site. While the matter was under Commission review, the parties settled all outstanding issues. One training instance, two aerial-lift items, and the alleged willful…
T.C. Erectors, Inc.
Fall-protection citation affirmed after a 28-foot roof fall on an untiered building
T.C. Erectors is a small steel erection contractor that was a subcontractor building a grocery store in Columbus, Ohio. An employee dragging roof decking fell 28 feet to the interior of the building and suffered fractures in both wrists and a foot plus a head injury; he was wearing a safety belt…
L. R. Willson and Sons, Inc.
On remand, Commission vacates a steel-erection fall-protection citation for lack of proof the supervisor's misconduct was foreseeable
L. R. Willson and Sons is a steel erection contractor. OSHA cited it for a violation of the fall protection standard for steel erection at 29 C.F.R. § 1926.750(b)(1)(ii). Earlier in the case the Commission had affirmed the violation as serious, imputing a supervisor's acts and knowledge to the…
L.R. Willson and Sons, Inc.
Fall-protection citation vacated on court remand
A supervisor and crew member performed steel-erection work without the required safety cables. The Commission had previously affirmed the violation as serious, but the Fourth Circuit held that OSHA bore the burden of proving the supervisor's conduct was foreseeable or preventable. On remand, the…
Interstate Erectors, Inc.
Two willful fall-protection citations affirmed against a steel erector
Interstate Erectors was a small steel erection company putting up skeleton steel for a building in Idaho Falls, Idaho. During a February 1993 inspection, an OSHA compliance officer photographed and videotaped ironworkers moving across beams 42 feet up without being tied off, both on exterior beams…
El Paso Crane and Rigging Co., Inc.
Mixed ruling on steel-erection fall protection
An El Paso Crane and Rigging employee fell 27 feet from a roof-level steel beam while trying to remove a kink from metal banding and was fatally injured. The Commission agreed that safety nets were infeasible for the tilt-wall building, but the company did not prove that a scissor lift was…
Midwest Steel Erection, Inc.
Steel-erection settlement approved with remaining rulings final
Three OSHA inspections of Midwest's structural-steel work produced serious, willful, repeat, and other-than-serious citations with $23,200 proposed. The judge affirmed several fall-protection and ladder items, reduced one willful item to serious, affirmed the repeat and other-than-serious…
Daniel Marr & Son Company
General safety-net charge vacated under steel-erection rule
Daniel Marr employees erected steel at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant while working up to 115 feet above the ground without safety nets in place. The judge found violations of both the steel-erection net rule and the general construction safety-net rule. Daniel Marr did not seek review of the…
L.R. Willson & Sons, Inc.
Perimeter safety-net citation vacated
L.R. Willson employees erected structural steel on upper floors of a Washington, D.C. building. OSHA cited the company for failing to install perimeter safety nets even though temporary floors were present below the work. The Commission held that the steel-erection fall-protection rules displaced…
Adams Steel Erection, Inc.
Safety-net and hard-hat citation items vacated
Adams Steel erected structural steel on a four-story building and used temporary flooring below employees working on perimeter beams. The Commission majority vacated a safety-net item because the steel-erection fall-protection rules in Subpart R governed the hazard and preempted the general…
National Industrial Constructors, Inc.
Power-plant construction violations resolved
The Commission reviewed numerous fall-protection, trenching, machine, electrical, scaffold, ladder, fire-extinguisher, and equipment-alarm items from construction of a Nebraska power plant. It rejected dismissal for delayed citation issuance because the employer did not prove prejudice. It held…
Stearns-Roger, Inc.
Serious fall-protection violation affirmed after delayed citation
Stearns-Roger had 10 to 25 ironworkers performing bolting work on narrow steel beams 94 to 120 feet above the ground. Employees tied off while stationary but often walked between connection points without fall protection. The judge vacated the citation because OSHA issued it 139 days after the…
National Industrial Constructors, Inc.
Sixty-foot fall-hazard items remanded under current precedent
Four employees installing metal decking faced potential 60-foot falls from a floor edge and through an unguarded wall opening. The judge vacated the safety-net and personal-protective-equipment allegations but affirmed the wall-opening item. Intervening Commission decisions changed or clarified the…
Williams Enterprises
Safety-net violation affirmed for unprotected ironworkers
Two Williams ironworkers connected steel about 49 feet above concrete without safety belts, nets, scaffolds, or temporary floors. Williams argued that installing nets was impossible because of the structure, existing scaffolds, anchorage distances, and net weight. The Commission found that the…
Unit Builders, Incorporated
Safety-net violation and $100 penalty affirmed
Unit Builders was a steel erection subcontractor constructing a one-story warehouse. OSHA originally cited a steel-erection safety-net standard, then amended the charge at the hearing to the general construction safety-net standard while keeping the same factual allegation. Employees were working…
Holman Erection Co., Inc.
Steelworker fall-protection penalty reduced to $100
Two Holman steel connectors traversed open beam gridwork about 35 feet above the ground without temporary floors, scaffolds, or safety nets beneath them. They wore safety belts, but the belts were not tied off while they moved along the beams. The Commission held that the specific steel-erection…
McKee-Wellman Power Gas
Commission substitutes the general fall-protection standard and remands
McKee-Wellman Power Gas was constructing a 60-foot ore crusher process tower at a copper ore leaching plant in Arizona. An ironworker bolting steel at the 49-foot level stood on a narrow ledge with a safety belt that was not tied off, then fell and suffered fatal injuries. The Commission held that…
Capitol Erection and Engineering Company, Inc.
Crane, ladder, and fall items produced a mixed $1,280 result
Capitol Erection was a structural-steel subcontractor working on a medical-center project in Mississippi. The judge affirmed an unsecured-ladder item, several admitted crane defects, a missing crane-cab fire extinguisher, an inadequate boom-jib stop, and a fall-protection item involving employees…
Taylor Building Associates
Safety-net and ladder violations affirmed during steel erection
Taylor Building Associates was erecting structural steel for a building in Pearl, Mississippi. Employees connecting beams worked more than 25 feet above the ground without safety nets, and employees climbed steel columns without ladders. The Commission reversed the judge’s vacation of the…
Daniel Construction Company
Safety-net citation vacated for open-bay building
Daniel Construction was erecting a large open-bay steel building intended to house a turbine generator and related equipment. Employees worked more than 25 feet above the operating floor without safety nets or scaffolds, and an ironworker fell about 105 feet while connecting a roof truss and died…
Southern Colorado Prestress Company
Safety-net violation affirmed with a $600 penalty
Southern Colorado Prestress was erecting a three-story prestressed-concrete building when an employee worked on a one-foot-wide perimeter beam about 27 feet above the ground. The employee had no safety net, scaffold, platform, safety belt, or other fall protection, and a roughly 40-mile-per-hour…
United States Steel Corp., d/b/a American Bridge
Serious safety-net citation affirmed by divided Commission
American Bridge was erecting steel on the 109th floor of the Sears Tower, about 38 feet above the next temporary floor. Two connectors walked along an 18-inch-wide beam to remove a lifting sling, and one employee lost his balance and fell to his death. No safety nets were installed, and the company…
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.