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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Stripe-A-Zone
New citations allowed after dismissal without prejudice
OSHA first cited Stripe-A-Zone after inspecting a freeway worksite where a fatality had occurred, then withdrew that citation without prejudice. After the withdrawal order became final, OSHA issued new citations based on the same inspection and facts but with different legal allegations and…
ASARCO, Inc.
Union participation required before settlement approval
ASARCO and the Secretary submitted a settlement after the United Steelworkers local representing affected employees had elected party status. The agreement stated only that it had been posted and did not show that the union received it, agreed to it, or participated in negotiations. The Commission…
Navajo Forest Products Industries
Tribal enterprise not subject to the OSH Act under Navajo treaty rights
Navajo Forest Products Industries was created and operated by the Navajo tribe on the reservation to develop timber resources, provide employment, and support tribal services. OSHA cited the enterprise after workplace inspections, and the parties agreed that it fit the Act's literal definition of…
Weldship Corporation
Settlement remanded for abatement and employee-notice defects
Weldship and the Secretary agreed to withdraw one citation item, reduce total penalties from $2,160 to $1,730, and have Weldship withdraw its contest. The agreement stated that Weldship did not admit liability but did not say whether or when the cited conditions had been abated. It also lacked…
Midwest Steel Erection, Inc.
Temporary floor did not automatically satisfy fall-protection rule
Midwest Steel Erection employees installed temporary metal-grating floors at a power plant while working 30 to 80 feet above ground. Some employees at unprotected perimeters were not tied off. The judge found compliance because the grating qualified as one of the alternatives to safety nets listed…
Universal Roofing & Sheet Metal Co.
Roof-edge PPE citation remanded under current precedent
OSHA cited Universal Roofing after an employee worked near a roof edge without personal fall protection. The judge vacated the citation, reasoning that the roof was safer than a temporary floor allowed by the safety-net rule and that a sloped-roof provision displaced the general PPE standard. The…
Republic Roofing Corporation
Roof-edge PPE citation remanded under revised burden rule
OSHA originally alleged that Republic Roofing failed to guard a roof perimeter, then amended the case to allege that employees lacked personal fall protection. The judge vacated the amended PPE citation because he placed the burden on the Secretary to plead and prove that the equipment was…
Automatic Sprinkler Corporation of America
Repeat-serious mobile-scaffold violation affirmed
An Automatic Sprinkler employee worked from another subcontractor's mobile scaffold about 11 to 12 feet above a concrete floor without required guardrails or toeboards. The company had supplied a ladder and generally instructed employees not to use other employers' equipment, but it had not…
Massman-Johnson (Luling), a Joint Venture
Witness-statement dismissal reversed
OSHA issued a willful-serious citation after an employee fell from a barge into the Mississippi River, and the judge later dismissed the case when the Secretary refused to disclose prospective witnesses' statements before hearing. The Commission held that the government's informer privilege can…
4G Plumbing & Heating, Inc.
Open-ground citation vacated
4G Plumbing & Heating was one of three prime contractors on a Montana prison-farm construction project. OSHA found that a temporary receptacle installed by the electrical contractor had an open ground and cited 4G under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.401(c) because its employees used the outlet. The defect was…
Charles A. Gaetano Construction Corp.
Four serious citations affirmed
Charles A. Gaetano Construction was building a parking ramp when OSHA cited serious hazards involving an inadequately guarded saw, missing personal fall protection, incomplete floor-edge guardrails, and an unguarded carpenter's bracket scaffold. The company argued that an ANSI standard incorporated…
T. J. Service Company
Ladder penalty cut and extinguisher citation reinstated
T. J. Service operated an oil-well workover rig whose derrick man climbed an unprotected fixed ladder to a work platform about 44 feet above the ground several times each day. The Commission affirmed a serious violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.450(a)(5) because the ladder lacked a cage, offset…
Favrot-Bellows, A Joint Venture
Serious fall-protection violation affirmed
OSHA alleged that Favrot-Bellows willfully violated fall-protection requirements stated in the alternative under three construction standards and proposed a $10,000 penalty. The judge instead affirmed a serious violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a) and assessed $500. On review, the employer expressly…
Borg-Warner Corporation
Serious asbestos exposure citation affirmed
At Borg-Warner's plumbing-products plant, an employee dusted plaster molds with NYTAL 200 talc in a visibly dusty operation. Multiple laboratory analyses found airborne fiber concentrations above the ceiling limit in 29 C.F.R. § 1910.93a(b)(3), and NIOSH electron microscopy and diffraction analysis…
Glendale Mills Inc.
Three violations affirmed and poster item vacated
Glendale Mills manufactured knitwear and clothing at a New York plant where OSHA found misleading exit doors, an unrailed stairway, a temporarily missing OSHA poster, and an inadequately guarded bench grinder. The judge affirmed the exit, stair, and grinder items but found that the company had…
Del-Cook Lumber Co.
Conveyor violation affirmed and platform penalty removed
At Del-Cook's sawmill, employees used a raised platform with a ten-foot unguarded edge and repaired a log conveyor by restarting it while maintenance work was still underway. During the usual chain-repair procedure, an employee continued holding a log with a cant hook as the conveyor restarted…
Bratton Corporation
Stair violations conditionally affirmed
Bratton supplied and installed metal stairways and handrails at a six-story construction project. Some permanent rails did not fit and had been returned for reworking, while the general contractor had filled the stair treads but left the landings unfilled. Three Bratton employees used the stairs to…
Diamond Roofing Company, Inc.
Commission vacates a flat-roof perimeter-guarding citation
Diamond Roofing Company was cited for failing to install perimeter guarding on a flat roof under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.500(d)(1). An administrative law judge affirmed that citation item. The Commission applied its divided decision in Central City Roofing Co., which held that the cited standard did not…
Claude Neon Federal Co.
Commission affirms safety-belt violation for sign work 100 feet above ground
Claude Neon Federal Company maintained signs on tall buildings. An employee repairing a neon sign moved across narrow supports and repositioned a ladder while working about 100 feet above the ground without a safety belt or other fall protection. OSHA originally cited the general duty clause, but…
Jerry Botchlet Masonry Construction Co.
Commission narrows scaffold citation and reduces penalty to $50
Jerry Botchlet Masonry Construction employees worked from a main scaffold about 20 feet high and two lower relay scaffolds. The main scaffold had a toprail but lacked a midrail and toeboard, while the relay scaffolds were temporarily unguarded after being lowered and stocked. The Commission found…
I.T.O. Corporation of New England; John T. Clark & Son of Boston, Inc.; Terminal Services, Inc.
Withdrawn contests reinstate citations
An Administrative Law Judge had vacated citations against three employers in five consolidated dockets. After that decision, the employers asked to withdraw their notices of contest and terminate the proceedings. The Commission granted the request because it served the purposes of the OSH Act. It…
CAPA Iron Works, Inc.
Water drum and pails satisfied fire protection requirement
CAPA Iron Works employees used an acetylene torch at a construction site where OSHA found no portable fire extinguisher. The company relied on a 55-gallon drum of water and two fire pails as alternative equipment. The Commission accepted the judge's credibility finding that the equipment was…
Parnon Construction, Inc.
Central records allowed and extinguisher item vacated
Parnon Construction performed masonry work at several dispersed construction sites and kept its injury and illness log at its main office. The Commission held that this centralized system complied with the rule for physically dispersed operations because foremen reported daily, the office contact…
Central of Georgia Railroad Company
Railroad liable for hazardous conditions on customer tracks
Central of Georgia Railroad sent switching crews onto tracks owned and maintained by Continental Can, where lime, oil, mud, chips, and water created unsafe walking conditions. The Commission rejected the railroad's argument that Federal Railroad Administration authority displaced OSHA jurisdiction…
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…
W. E. Dalton, M. L. Dalton & J. B. Truelove, d/b/a E. L. Dalton & Co.
Trench timbering and warning-vest items affirmed
E. L. Dalton & Co. performed trenching work beside a public street and near railroad tracks in Irving, Texas. The Commission affirmed a serious trench-timbering violation because the company used three-quarter-inch plywood where the applicable table required larger timber, and it sustained a $100…
Bonitz All-Weather Crete Co., Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail citation vacated
Bonitz employees installed roof insulation on a flat hospital roof about 26 feet above the ground without guardrails or other fall protection. The judge found a serious violation after rejecting the company's claims that guardrails were infeasible or would create a greater hazard, and assessed a…
Stimson Contracting Co.
Three trench items affirmed and duplicate item vacated
Stimson Contracting employees installed sewer pipe in a trench that was 17 feet deep and four feet wide at the bottom. The company placed excavated material too close to the edge, did not provide an adequate exit, and left a crawler crane above and near the trench without additional shoring or…
Rust Engineering Company; Allegheny Industrial Electric Company
Scaffold access item reduced to de minimis
A Rust Engineering employee climbed down a 15-foot scaffold using its end-frame bars instead of a separate access ladder. The Commission agreed that the bars were not equivalent to a proper ladder because their spacing varied from 19 to 21 inches and the record did not show slip-resistant…
General Electric Company
Unguarded paint-room pit violated open-pit standard
General Electric used a long, five-foot-deep pit to paint the undersides of railroad cars at its Erie facility. After a car left the room, painters routinely cleaned debris from a floor surrounding the unguarded pit and worked within two to three feet of its edge. The Commission held that…
The House of Glass
Seven equipment and electrical items affirmed
The House of Glass operated a retail glass and glazing business in Great Falls, Montana. OSHA cited conditions involving a discharged fire extinguisher, a radial saw, an unguarded pulley, blocked electrical equipment, and three ungrounded appliances or machines. The Commission found the record…
Swimline Corp.
Advisory radiation guide could not support citation
OSHA cited Swimline after measuring electromagnetic exposure above 10 milliwatts per square centimeter at an operator's position on a radio-frequency heat sealer. The judge held that the cited radiation guide was advisory because it said the level "should not" be exceeded, while an enforceable…
Briscoe/Arace/Conduit, A Joint Venture
Beam fall-protection item affirmed and roof item vacated
Employees of the joint venture worked on 18-inch-wide beam bottoms about 16 feet above a basement floor cluttered with stored scaffolding. They used no personal fall protection. The Commission affirmed a serious violation and a $700 penalty because a cable system for attaching safety belts was…
McHugh & McHugh
First-aid and crane swing-radius items affirmed
McHugh & McHugh used two barges and a crane while constructing a railroad bridge over the Willamette River. The Commission affirmed a first-aid item because supplies locked in a shore-side trailer were not easily accessible to employees working on barges in the river. It also affirmed a serious…
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.
Crane brake item affirmed without penalty
Wheeling-Pittsburgh operated a 35-ton overhead crane after its engine had been repaired but before the hydraulic foot brake was reinstalled. Operators normally stopped the crane by reversing its electric motor, but that method would not work during a power failure and the foot brake was used in…
J. P. Fyfe, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail citation vacated
J. P. Fyfe employees performed roofing work on a one-story building about 15 to 17 feet above the ground. OSHA observed seven employees on the roof, including two within two or three feet of the edge, without perimeter guarding or personal fall protection. OSHA alleged a repeat serious…
Western Waterproofing Co., Inc.
Five suspension-scaffold items affirmed
Western Waterproofing employees sprayed a building from a two-point suspension scaffold supported by outrigger beams at heights up to 22 feet. The judge found that the outrigger supports lacked required bearing, anchorage, and bracing, and that the scaffold lacked a secondary tieback, safety belts…
Mikel Company, Inc.
Machine-guarding items affirmed in part and penalties reduced
Mikel Company manufactured high-style furniture using saws, routers, a jointer, and a root shaper. The judge vacated the root-shaper item because the evidence showed a hold-down guard was installed, but affirmed jointer and router guarding violations with penalties of $30 and $35. Four saw-guarding…
Quillian Pipe Company, Inc.
Trench violation reduced from willful to serious
Quillian Pipe employees worked in an inadequately protected trench that was more than five feet deep while installing underground pipeline in Macon, Georgia. OSHA had recently explained trenching requirements to the company's president after an earlier inspection, then cited the later condition as…
Deemer Steel Casting Co.
Failure-to-abate settlement approved
Deemer Steel had previously been ordered to control dust from portable pneumatic grinding wheels and was given time to seek a variance. After OSHA denied the variance application and reinspected the plant, it issued a failure-to-abate notice with a proposed $1,260 penalty. The parties agreed to…
Adler & Neilson Co., Inc.
Central recordkeeping satisfied construction rules
Adler & Neilson performed architectural metal installation as a subcontractor at a temporary construction site. OSHA cited the company for not keeping its injury and illness log and annual summary at that worksite. The Commission found that the company had maintained the records at its central…
Croom Construction Co.
Safety-belt citation vacated under wrong standard
A Croom Construction employee fell through a temporarily covered roof opening to a concrete floor 15 to 17 feet below and died. OSHA cited the company for not using lifelines, safety belts, or lanyards while employees installed roofing sheets. The Commission held that the cited standard regulated…
Carl E. Widell & Son; L. Feriozzi Concrete Company; L & S Steel Service, Inc.
Excavation citations vacated for lack of moving-ground danger
Employees of three contractors worked in a pumping-station excavation about 48 feet square and 27 feet deep. OSHA alleged that the west wall exposed employees to moving ground because its slope was less than the approximate angle listed in a trenching table. The judge found that OSHA did not prove…
Monroe & Sons, Inc.
Serious citations vacated after Rule 60 reopening
Monroe & Sons timely contested two serious citations but, while acting without counsel, did not separately answer the Secretary’s complaint because it believed the notice of contest was sufficient. The notice of contest was dismissed by default and the order became final, but the Commission later…
Weyerhaeuser Company
Noise-standard ruling reversed and remanded
Weyerhaeuser's Honolulu corrugated-box plant exposed a single-facer operator to noise above the limits in OSHA's occupational-noise standard. The company required hearing protection and had investigated a range of engineering controls, while the judge vacated the citation after declaring § 1910.95…
Champlin Petroleum Co.
Flat-roof citation vacated
A Champlin employee worked at the edge of a service-station roof while removing a sign without a safety line or safety belt. OSHA cited Champlin for a serious violation of the construction perimeter-guarding standard, and the judge affirmed that item. The Commission vacated the citation because its…
Boise Cascade Corporation
Radial-saw guarding citation affirmed
Boise Cascade operated four radial saws at its Springfield, Virginia workplace without lower-blade guards that automatically adjusted to the stock being cut. The parties stipulated to those conditions, so the only disputed issue was whether the radial-saw guarding rule had been validly adopted as…
Sloan Roofing Company
Flat-roof guarding citation vacated
Sloan Roofing employees installed roofing material on a flat roof at a Michelin Tire facility in Edison, New Jersey. The roof was 24 feet above the ground, but the judge found that the employees stayed at least 40 feet from its edge and were not exposed to a perimeter fall hazard. OSHA alleged a…
Northeast Marine Terminal Company
Seven terminal citation items vacated
OSHA observed powered-truck riders, poor housekeeping, gasoline leakage, ladder problems, and an unguarded radial saw at a Brooklyn marine terminal shared by two separate companies. The inspector initially assumed one company controlled the entire site and later divided the observed conditions…
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Inc.
Butcher PPE citation vacated
OSHA cited A&P because two retail meatcutters at its Augusta, Georgia store did not use wire-mesh gloves or protective aprons. The judge found very few minor knife injuries in the company's local stores, limited industry use of mesh gloves, and practical concerns about sanitation, frequent glove…
United Telephone Company of the Carolinas
Crane-clearance citation affirmed
A United Telephone construction crew was moving telephone poles and lines out of the path of Interstate 95 in South Carolina. A truck-mounted boom came into contact with, or close enough to arc to, an energized 8-kilovolt power line, and two linemen touching the truck were electrocuted. OSHA cited…
American Airlines, Inc.
Foot-protection citation affirmed without a penalty
American Airlines employed cargo, freight, and maintenance workers at Bradley International Airport. OSHA cited the airline because those employees handled heavy items and equipment but were not required to wear safety shoes or other toe protection. The Commission found that the work exposed…
Decks, Inc. of Florida
Flat-roof guarding item vacated
OSHA cited Decks, Inc. of Florida for several items, including an allegation that it failed to install perimeter guarding on a flat roof. The Commission held that 29 C.F.R. § 1926.500(d)(1) did not apply to flat roofs. It therefore vacated Item 7 and its associated penalty. The Commission also…
Franklin R. Lacy
Citation vacated for lack of commerce proof
Franklin R. Lacy owned and managed an apartment building in Kirkland, Washington, and directly hired workers to construct an additional building. OSHA issued eight nonserious citation items and proposed $220 in penalties. The Commission adopted the judge's ruling that the Secretary had not proved…
Noblecraft Industries, Inc.
Radial-saw guarding violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Noblecraft manufactured kitchen cabinets and used a radial-arm saw whose lower blade lacked the automatic guard required by 29 C.F.R. § 1910.213(h)(1). The judge had vacated the citation after concluding that the Secretary improperly adopted the rule from an ANSI standard without an advisory…
Otis Elevator Company
Safety-belt violation and $100 penalty affirmed
Two Otis elevator mechanics worked in an open elevator shaft while standing on a single unsecured plank about 20 feet above the next complete platform, without wearing safety belts. Otis had issued protective equipment, maintained a safety handbook, and held safety meetings, but its working foreman…
Nelco, Incorporated
Excavation citation vacation affirmed
Nelco dug a six-foot-deep, 65-foot-long, 35-foot-wide cavity for a cistern, with vertical unshored walls and an employee working in a roughly two-and-a-half-foot space between an earthen wall and a reinforcing-steel lattice. OSHA initially cited the excavation standard and later alleged the more…
Queen City Sheet Metal and Roofing, Inc.
Punch-press citation vacation affirmed
OSHA cited Queen City because its mechanical punch presses lacked point-of-operation guards under the general machine-guarding standard at 29 C.F.R. § 1910.212(a)(3)(ii). The judge vacated the citation, reasoning that the more specific mechanical-power-press standard governed and relying on…
J. W. Black Lumber Company
Chemical-protection and chipper-item vacations affirmed
Two disputed sawmill items were before the Commission from a larger citation. One alleged that employees handling lumber treated with the preservative Super Noxtane were not required to wear rubber gloves; the judge vacated it because the Secretary had not established that the solution's…
Boise Cascade Corporation
Sawmill guarding violations and $300 penalty affirmed
OSHA cited Boise Cascade's sawmill for inadequate guarding of end saws on board and cant trimmers and of components on a Bolter saw. The equipment had some guards, but the judge found that the cited guards did not adequately protect employees and that 29 C.F.R. §§ 1910.265(e)(4)(ii)(b) and…
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.