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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Irwin Steel Erectors Inc.
Four contested construction items vacated
Irwin Steel Erectors performed steel erection and welding during construction of a Motorola facility in Austin, Texas. At the hearing, it resolved six serious citation items by withdrawing its contests in exchange for reduced penalties. The four remaining items concerned fire-extinguisher access…
B & M Construction
Three scaffold access and fall-protection items affirmed
B & M Construction performed asbestos removal around a boiler at a City of Lubbock power plant. OSHA found no access ladder, two unguarded openings in a walkway about 12 feet above the ground, and an unguarded I-beam used as a walkway. B & M argued that employees had not worked on the boiler…
D.H. Shelton Associates, Inc.
Scaffold guardrail violation affirmed with reduced penalty
D.H. Shelton Associates was a subcontractor on an automobile dealership construction project in El Paso, Texas. The judge rejected the company's challenge to the OSHA inspection because the general contractor consented and a worker who identified himself as Shelton's foreman did not object. OSHA…
Oklahoma Natural Gas
Excavation items reduced to nonserious violations
Oklahoma Natural Gas employees worked in a trench while installing a gas line in Oklahoma City. The judge found that one wall did not meet the protective-system requirements for the Type C soil and that the foreman was not a competent person under the revised excavation rules because he had not yet…
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review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.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.