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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Reynolds Inc.
Quick-coupler items split and trench violations affirmed
Reynolds was installing a water main when an excavator bucket detached from a hydraulic quick coupler, rolled into an excavation, and fatally struck an employee. The judge vacated the general-duty and safety-program items because Reynolds lacked notice that the experienced operator would skip…
Gate Concrete Products Co.
Gantry crane guarding items partly vacated
Gate Concrete Products manufactured precast concrete products and used gantry cranes to move them around its Jacksonville plant. An employee lost two fingers after reaching through a missing engine-compartment door while a maintenance supervisor tried to start a stalled crane. The judge vacated the…
Fastrack Erectors
Attorney-fee application denied
Fastrack Erectors sought $13,091.40 in attorney fees and expenses after a steel-erection fall-protection citation was vacated. OSHA's compliance officer had observed and videotaped two employees working without fall protection on a roof about 30 feet above the ground and believed they came within…
Centimark Roofing Systems
Suspended-load and crane-rigging items vacated
Centimark hired an independent crane company to hoist roofing materials and trash-chute parts to a warehouse roof. During the second chute-parts lift, the load shifted and an eight-foot steel bar slipped out and struck the crane operator. The crane operator had helped rig the load and signaled the…
Davis H. Elliot Company
Power-line citation vacated for unpreventable misconduct
A Davis H. Elliot Company foreman was electrocuted when a 6-foot-4-inch ground wire contacted a 7,200-volt line about 52 inches away. He did not use the available rubber gloves, sleeves, or insulating hoses. The judge found that the ground wire breached the minimum approach distance and that the…
Purler-Cannon-Schulte, Inc.
Repeat cave-in protection violation affirmed
Purler-Cannon-Schulte was installing a 72-inch storm sewer line when OSHA found its foreman working near an almost vertical wall in an excavation about 11 feet deep. The soil was Type B, and the south wall lacked adequate sloping, benching, shoring, or shielding. The judge rejected the company's…
Darby Creek Excavating
Four excavation items vacated and one inspection violation affirmed
Darby Creek Excavating was installing a water line when OSHA found an employee in a deep excavation with accumulated water, no ladder, and no cave-in protection. The judge vacated the general duty clause item because the Secretary did not prove that failing to barricade the excavator's swing radius…
Richard Kenda Farms
Field water violation affirmed, two sanitation items vacated
Richard Kenda Farms used seasonal workers to hand harvest vegetables in Florida fields. The judge found that potable water was sometimes not brought to workers until one to four hours after harvesting began in hot conditions, so he affirmed that violation as serious. He vacated the single-use cup…
Structural Building Systems, Inc.
Steel-erection fall violation affirmed
Structural Building Systems supplied a steel-erection crew for a new Ohio middle school. A foreman and an employee moved a heavy steel tube about 20 feet above a concrete floor without tying off, and the employee fell and sustained serious injuries. The judge rejected the company's unpreventable…
Westar Energy
Electrical citation vacated for unpreventable misconduct
A Westar Energy apprentice was electrocuted after entering the minimum approach distance of an energized transformer compartment without the required high-voltage rubber gloves. The company did not dispute the unsafe condition or that the foreman was present, but asserted unpreventable employee…
CWJ Contracting, Inc.
Repeat residential fall-protection violation affirmed
CWJ Contracting framed apartment buildings, and its superintendent stood on narrow joists of an undecked second-floor balcony about 10 feet above a concrete patio without fall protection. The judge held that CWJ's controlled-access-zone plan did not apply because the superintendent was discussing…
B & L Drywall & Acoustical, Inc.
Fall-arrest and training items affirmed
B & L Drywall was installing exterior studs and drywall when a newspaper photographed an employee standing on a scissor-lift basket rail about 24 feet above the ground. The employee wore a harness, but his six-foot lanyard was attached below shoulder level and could have allowed a free fall longer…
CB&I Constructors, Inc.
GFCI citation against general contractor vacated
CB&I was the general contractor for an elevated water tower where an electrical subcontractor had an extension cord without visible ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection connected to a conduit threader. The judge found that the Secretary did not prove the outlet was single-phase and rated at…
Designs Unlimited Contractors
Residential roofing violations affirmed
Designs Unlimited Contractors was finishing a residential reroofing job when OSHA observed three workers more than 25 feet above the ground without fall protection. The judge found that the company had not provided competent-person inspections, had removed its fall-protection system before…
Recchi America, Inc.- GLF Construction Corp., A Joint Venture
Rebar and crane swing-radius violations affirmed
OSHA cited the joint venture building Georgia's Sidney Lanier Bridge for uncapped reinforcing steel, open access holes, an inadequate crane swing-radius barricade, and failure to secure a crane to a barge. The judge affirmed the serious rebar violation and the repeat swing-radius violation. The…
Brian Hanley Logging
Yarder guyline hazard affirmed as repeat
Brian Hanley Logging anchored three guylines from a skyline logging yarder to standing trees. The judge found that the trees could fall toward employees when stressed by the yarding operation, that both the logging industry and the employer recognized the hazard, and that using notched stumps or…
Anderson Masonry, Inc.
Scaffold access and locking-pin violations affirmed
Employees erecting Anderson Masonry's scaffold climbed cross bracing because no ladder or other safe access had been provided, and scaffold frames lacked locking pins despite repeated forklift deliveries that could cause uplift. Those serious violations were affirmed with penalties totaling $3,000…
Hill Brother Construction, Inc.
Late contest dismissed after owner failed to read notice
Hill Brothers' president received OSHA's citations well before the contest deadline but looked only at the proposed penalties and did not read the prominently stated filing instructions. He then consulted several attorneys and made no effort to contact OSHA until more than 40 days after the…
Anderson Columbia Co., Inc.
Truck-bed transport violations yield $14,000 penalty
Anderson Columbia used a pickup truck to carry an employee and oversized traffic warning signs along a highway work area. The employee fell from the moving truck bed and later died from his injuries. The judge affirmed a serious violation for failing to secure the signs and found that allowing the…
Kelly-Hill Company
Crane violations affirmed with $17,000 in penalties
Kelly-Hill Company maintained railroad construction equipment at its Missouri shop. An employee was electrocuted when a crane lifting a tie inserter contacted energized overhead power lines. The judge affirmed violations involving the crane manufacturer's operating limits, missing load information…
Duro-Last, Inc.
First-aid-room eating violation affirmed
OSHA cited three conditions at Duro-Last's roofing-material plant. The judge vacated the eyewash item because employees merely connected forklift batteries for charging and the Secretary did not prove exposure to corrosive electrolyte. He also vacated the machine-shaft guarding item because…
Ingram Plastering and Company, Inc.
Scaffold and hard-hat violations resulted in $10,800 in penalties
Ingram Plastering employees performed exterior stucco work from scaffolding up to about 23 feet high. The judge found that work levels were not fully planked, no qualified competent person inspected the scaffold before shifts, employees did not consistently wear hard hats, and one employee lacked…
B. S. Carter Construction Co., Inc.
Training and cave-in violations affirmed
B. S. Carter Construction replaced a drainage pipe in an excavation at least 13.5 feet deep. The excavation collapsed, completely burying one employee and partially burying another; the first employee sustained multiple serious injuries. The judge found that the workers had received no…
Joel Patterson Air Conditioning Recycling
Workplace violations resulted in $4,100 in penalties
Joel Patterson Air Conditioning Recycling paid workers daily to dismantle used air conditioners at its warehouse but labeled them subcontractors. Applying the economic-realities test, the judge found they were employees because the business controlled the workplace, pay, hours, equipment, hiring…
Turner Construction Company
Escalator-access and floor-hole citations vacated
Turner was the general contractor for interior demolition at an Atlanta building where another contractor's equipment-repair technician was found dead after an apparent fall through a floor opening. OSHA cited Turner for allegedly failing to barricade an escalator and protect employees from floor…
Follett Corporation
Reliance on landlord did not excuse late contest
Follett operated a college bookstore in a Tuskegee University building and received citations concerning vermin, asbestos awareness, and lead exposure. Its store manager gave both Follett's citations and the university's separate citations to a university safety official, believing the university…
Inglett & Stubbs, Inc.
Mishandled citation did not excuse late contest
Inglett & Stubbs was an electrical contractor whose employee died after being caught between a scissor lift guardrail and a structure. OSHA cited the company for moving the lift without a competent person and for inadequate scissor-lift training. The citation reached the company's office, but it…
SC Development Corporation
Lead-protection violations affirmed and willful classification reduced
SC Development demolished a lead-painted railroad bridge by torch cutting without first assessing employee lead exposure. Employees lacked required interim respiratory protection, protective clothing, washing facilities, biological monitoring, training, and a site-specific compliance program. The…
The National Coal Museum
Mine-roof hazard affirmed as serious
The National Coal Museum operated public tours in an abandoned Illinois coal mine and employed former miners to maintain the underground facility. The judge held that OSHA had jurisdiction because the site was a museum, not an active mineral-extraction operation regulated by MSHA, and rejected…
Double "A" Industries, Inc.
Roofing subcontractor's safety citations affirmed under the multi-employer worksite rule
Double "A" Industries is a small south Florida shell contractor that took a $38,000 contract to build a guardhouse and subcontracted the roofing labor out. An OSHA officer inspecting a nearby site watched roof workers for about 40 minutes without fall protection or hard hats and improperly using…
Metric Constructors, Inc.
Scaffold guardrail violations affirmed
Metric was the general contractor for an Army barracks project where its masonry subcontractor used scaffolds with missing or deficient fall protection. The judge held Metric responsible as the controlling employer because it conducted daily inspections, paid for the scaffolding, and could require…
BF Goodrich Hilton Davis, Inc.
One PPE citation affirmed after a boilout burn injury, remaining items vacated
BF Goodrich Hilton Davis makes color pigments and dyes at a Cincinnati plant, where large dryers are periodically cleaned with a hot, corrosive soap-and-water "boilout." A third-shift operator was burned over 47 percent of his body when boilout contents at about 116 degrees Celsius splashed on him…
R.B. Thomas Electric, Inc.
Aerial-lift and safety-program violations affirmed
An OSHA compliance officer saw a Thomas Electric apprentice working 15 to 20 feet above concrete in an aerial lift without a safety harness. The judge found that the company was still performing construction work and had not arranged regular competent-person inspections or systematically trained…
A & W Construction Services, Inc.
Willful scaffold fall-protection citation affirmed at $20,000
A & W Construction, a Florida stucco and drywall contractor, was inspected while its crew did stucco work from a four-tier scaffold on a Daytona Beach building. Two 10-foot center sections at the second and third tiers, roughly 12 and 20 feet up, had no guardrails, and five employees worked there…
Reynolds, Inc.
Three excavation violations affirmed
Reynolds was installing sewer lines in Ohio when employees, including the foreman, worked in a trench more than six feet deep without sloping, shoring, or a trench box. Excavated material was piled at the trench edge, and the foreman did not complete the required competent-person inspection before…
Williams Brothers Construction, Inc.
Uncovered floor holes citation affirmed despite a multi-employer defense
Williams Brothers Construction was doing interior demolition at a university library in Charleston, Illinois, and also served as the project's coordinating contractor. OSHA cited it with an other-than-serious violation, no penalty proposed, for a cluster of uncovered floor holes on the second floor…
C-Post
Willful lockout and guarding citations cut to serious after a small fence-post maker's amputation injury
C-Post is a small Montana company that makes wooden fence posts and furniture legs from logs, employing about 10 people. After a worker's left hand was severed in a doweler machine, OSHA inspected and issued a long list of serious, willful, repeat, and other-than-serious citations covering…
Airloc, Inc.
A window maker's late contest of failure-to-abate penalties was dismissed
Airloc, Inc. is a small aluminum window, door, and awning maker in Youngstown, Ohio. In June 2000 it received a notification that it had failed to abate two power-press hazards, one for unguarded foot pedals and one for missing periodic inspections, with $3,000 in additional penalties proposed. The…
Stolle Products A Division of American Trim
Settlement approved after an acid-tank burn injury, $9,200 penalty
Stolle Products, a division of American Trim, runs a metal finishing plant in Sidney, Ohio. After an employee burned his legs in an acid tank in April 2000, OSHA inspected the anodizing department and issued serious and other-than-serious citations. Stolle contested them, and a hearing was held…
Bredshall Plastering, Inc.
Unguarded table saw and missing scaffold guardrail affirmed, infeasibility and greater-hazard defenses rejected
Bredshall Plastering is a small Ohio contractor doing exterior insulation and stucco work. During work on a historical society office addition in Wilmington, an OSHA officer driving by saw a foreman on scaffolding without fall protection and stopped to inspect. OSHA issued a serious citation for an…
Cooper/T. Smith Stevedoring Company, Inc.
Forklift attachment items vacated and settled items affirmed
Cooper/T. Smith operated forklifts with paper-roll and bale-clamp attachments at a Memphis marine terminal. OSHA alleged that the company needed prior manufacturer approval and revised forklift data plates for those attachments. The judge found that proper front-end attachments within the…
Watkins Engineers & Constructors, Inc.
General contractor's scaffold citations vacated because the scaffold was being taken down
Watkins Engineers & Constructors was the general contractor building its own office in Tallahassee, Florida. A glass subcontractor's crew was up on a scaffold near a corner of the finished building when an OSHA compliance officer inspected. OSHA cited Watkins, the general contractor, for three…
Nu-Waay Enterprises, Inc.
Safety-program, first-aid, and fall-protection citations affirmed after a 24-foot fall
Nu-Waay Enterprises is a small construction company that built an elevated walkway and observation platform at a national wildlife refuge in Mississippi. While a crew was removing the formwork under the finished platform, a stuck I-beam broke loose, catapulting a worker who fell about 24 feet and…
R.P. Industries, Inc.
Heavy-equipment seat-belt and inoperable-horn violations affirmed
R.P. Industries was clearing and grading a construction site in Florence, Alabama, using scrapers and other heavy equipment. A scraper operator who was not wearing a seat belt was ejected during a traffic-avoidance maneuver and sustained multiple fractures, a punctured lung, and other injuries…
Complete General Construction Co.
Spoil-pile citation stands, but cave-in item fails under the Secretary's admission
Complete General Construction was relocating water lines while widening a state highway in Waverly, Ohio. OSHA cited the company because a two-foot-high spoil pile sat directly at the edge of an excavation where two employees were working nearby. The judge held that § 1926.651(j)(2) requires spoil…
Piggly Wiggly Alabama Distribution Co., Inc.
Wheel-chock violation stands, but training and recordkeeping items fail
Piggly Wiggly operated a large grocery distribution warehouse where a forklift operator was killed when a hostler moved a trailer away from the dock while the employee was still inside. OSHA's inspection produced serious, willful, and recordkeeping citation items. The judge affirmed the serious…
Gulf Hauling & Construction, Inc.
PPE-training and eyewash items affirmed, most items vacated after a fatal chemical-burn accident
Gulf Hauling & Construction is a family-owned Mobile, Alabama company that hauls paper-processing waste for the International Paper plant. An employee was found on the concrete waste pad in black liquor solids, a caustic material, and died several weeks later from complications of chemical burns…
Cincinnati Incorporated
Bypassed lathe interlock exposed operators to rotating parts and flying chips
Cincinnati Incorporated manufactures metal-forming equipment at its Harrison, Ohio, plant. The company bypassed the interlock on an automated lathe so operators could partially open its door and hold newly threaded bolts with a PVC pipe during the cutoff cycle. The judge found that the door was…
The Haskell Company
Scaffold items affirmed for hazards exposing its own employee
The Haskell Company was the general contractor expanding a pilot training center in Savannah, Georgia. OSHA found Haskell's employee working 12 feet above the ground on an exterior tubular-frame scaffold with wide gaps in the planking, missing guardrails, and no access ladder. The superintendent…
Freeze Technology International, Inc.
Mixed ruling after nitrogen asphyxiation at pipeline freeze site
Freeze Technology used liquid nitrogen to form ice plugs in an underground water pipeline so Enerpipe could perform hydrostatic testing at a remote Oklahoma ranch. Two night-shift workers were found dead inside the freeze excavation after nitrogen gas displaced the oxygen. The judge affirmed…
St. James Stevedoring Co., Inc.
First-aid and emergency-plan items affirmed on Mississippi crane barges
St. James Stevedoring used crane-mounted barges for midriver cargo transfers on the Mississippi River and refused an on-site OSHA inspection because it believed the Coast Guard had exclusive authority. Judge Ken S. Welsch held that OSHA could regulate the cited conditions because the barges were…
Cleveland Construction, Inc.
Skylight fall item reduced from willful to serious
Cleveland Construction supervised replacement of large skylight panels at a university building. OSHA videotaped the company superintendent and another worker next to an uncovered skylight opening 18 to 22 feet above the floor without fall protection. Judge Ken S. Welsch found the skylight standard…
Sofco Erectors, Inc.
Crane-load citation vacated because operator was not hoisting
A steel connector stood on a beam while trying to align its free end with a column. One end was already bolted, the other was wedged low, and the crane line remained under tension; when the worker pried the beam loose, it sprang upward and bruised his leg. Judge Ken S. Welsch found that the crane…
Lanzo Construction Co., Inc.
Ladder and cave-in items affirmed, repeat classification rejected
Lanzo employees worked in an unprotected 12-foot excavation and used a ladder perched on unstable, sloping soil. The ladder was not missing a rung as first alleged, but its extension-ladder design left nonuniform spacing that created a misstep hazard. Judge Ken S. Welsch affirmed the two ladder…
Orion Electric, Inc.
Energized-circuit violation affirmed
Two Orion journeyman electricians installed dimmer switches on an energized low-voltage circuit during restaurant renovation work, and one employee died from electrocution. Judge Ken S. Welsch held that the electrical-protection standard contains no low-voltage exception and that experience working…
M & D Power Constructors, Inc.
Willful arsenic violations affirmed
M&D performed maintenance and demolition work during an outage at an Alabama coal-fired power plant, where fly ash in air heaters and an old precipitator contained inorganic arsenic. Judge Ken S. Welsch found that the air heaters remained regulated areas until representative monitoring showed…
Pilgrim's Pride Corporation
Damaged passageway floor violated aisle-repair rule
Pilgrim's Pride operated a chicken-processing plant where employees pushed wheeled carts through a hallway to a freezer. The hallway floor had numerous shallow depressions where its asphalt-like covering had cracked and flaked away. Judge Ken S. Welsch found that the alternative floor-cleaning…
Ruscilli Construction Co., Inc.
Steel-erection citation split and penalties reduced on reconsideration
Ruscilli Construction erected steel for a large warehouse project in Ohio. OSHA issued seven serious citation items involving jobsite inspections, fall protection, compressed-air hoses, and aerial lifts. Judge Ken S. Welsch affirmed the inspection-program item because the designated competent…
Atlas Central Corporation
Bridge-painting citations split over dust, lead, and cadmium controls
Atlas Central Corporation removed paint from a Cleveland bridge by abrasive blasting inside a ventilated containment. OSHA cited employee exposure to lead, total dust, and cadmium, along with deficiencies in exposure controls, monitoring, written programs, housekeeping, and training. Judge Ken S…
WellTech Mid-Continent
Muddy access-road citation vacated after truck overturn
WellTech used tractor-trailer rigs to haul rock to an oil-well access road during rainy weather. One loaded truck left the muddy road, overturned into a pond, and the driver died. Judge Ken S. Welsch held that the cited earthmoving-equipment standard did not apply because the trucks operated both…
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.