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.
Horizon Roofing & Sheetmetal, Inc.
Debris and fall-protection items vacated
Horizon removed and replaced a large postal-facility roof using separate chutes for stone and other roofing debris. OSHA cited the company after an employee working inside a dumpster was struck by roofing material and sustained unspecified neck, back, and arm injuries. Judge Richard DeBenedetto…
Mass. Electric Construction Co.
Energized-panel violation affirmed after electrical flash
Mass. Electric employees worked on an energized 480-volt distribution panel without effective insulation or other protection. An electrical flash burned the job foreman while he attempted to remove tape from energized busbars. The company argued that the foreman acted contrary to its safety rules…
T.L.T. Construction Co., Inc.
Open-edge and willful scaffold violations affirmed
T.L.T. Construction was the general contractor on a school gymnasium project where employees worked near an unguarded floor edge and on tall scaffolds. Judge Richard DeBenedetto found that the open-sided floor exposed employees to falls of six to nine feet. He also found that employees climbed…
ICF Kaiser Engineers of Massachusetts, Inc.
Underground mantrip safety citation vacated
ICF Kaiser provided construction-management personnel for the Boston Harbor tunnel project. A Kaiser inspector died while entering a mantrip railcar after the train unexpectedly moved without warning. Judge Richard DeBenedetto held that the general underground access and egress rule did not…
Michael J. Gresh Painting Co., Inc.
Bridge fall-protection violation affirmed
Michael J. Gresh Painting employees secured containment tarps on a bridge superstructure about 25 to 30 feet above the roadway without tying off. Six employees violated the company's fall-protection policy, including the foreman, who was not wearing a safety belt or harness. Judge Richard…
National Envelope Corporation d/b/a New York Envelope Co.
All remaining machine-safety citations vacated
OSHA issued National Envelope Corporation citations after two inspections of its envelope manufacturing plant. One case alleged inadequate training after a machine operator injured a finger while attempting to address a chip-collector problem. Judge Richard DeBenedetto found that the operator had…
Walter Jensen, d/b/a S & W Construction
Willful steep-roof fall citations affirmed, one power-line item vacated
Walter Jensen, doing business as S & W Construction, ran residential roofing crews in New Hampshire. OSHA inspected two of his steep-roof jobsites about five weeks apart, both under the same foreman, and found roofers working high above the ground with no guardrails, nets, or personal fall arrest…
S & F Concrete Contractors, Inc.
Fall citation affirmed with a reduced penalty
S & F Concrete Contractors, Inc. performed concrete formwork for a hotel parking garage in the Boston area. OSHA cited the company for failing to protect employees working on concrete beams near open sides and ends. The judge found that one open side lacked required midrail protection and that one…
Macy's East, Inc.; Abraham & Straus, Inc.; Stern's Department Stores, Inc.
Twenty-nine exit-aisle instances rejected
OSHA cited three department-store companies for 32 instances in which merchandise or display tables allegedly obstructed exit aisles. The judge had previously rejected the Secretary's position that the cited standard required 60-inch or 44-inch aisle clearance. Because OSHA did not calculate…
Meer Corporation
Process-safety citations vacated, shaft guard item affirmed
Meer Corporation used large quantities of methanol and ethanol while manufacturing botanical products. OSHA alleged numerous process safety management violations, arguing that atmospheric storage tanks were connected to the production process. The judge found that OSHA's witnesses gave inconsistent…
Geo & Ted Electric Corp.
Two of four contested items upheld against an electrical contractor, two vacated
Geo & Ted Electric Corp. (G&T), a Brooklyn electrical contractor, was one of several contractors renovating New York City's medical examiner building. OSHA inspected after a fatal accident involving a different contractor's employee and cited G&T for serious and repeat violations. By the time of…
Aero Tec Laboratories, Inc.
Plant safety items largely affirmed with reduced penalties
Aero Tec manufactured fuel tanks and containment vessels at its New Jersey plant. The judge rejected its claim that OSHA had promised no penalties or exceeded the scope of consent because management accompanied the open inspection without objecting. The decision affirmed items involving an…
Pak Nation Construction Co., Inc.
Citations affirmed after the company's only defense, that it was not the workers' employer, was found not credible
OSHA cited Pak Nation Construction Co., Inc. on September 15, 1993 for serious and repeat violations of construction safety and health standards found during an inspection of a building restoration in the Bronx, New York, and proposed penalties totaling $10,400. At the hearing Pak Nation stipulated…
P. A. Landers, Incorporated
Four excavation violations affirmed for $10,300, willful charge reduced to serious
P. A. Landers, Incorporated was constructing a manhole in an excavation about 8.5 feet deep beside a roadway carrying substantial traffic. Three employees worked without hard hats, bricks and concrete blocks were stored within two feet of the edge, and the access ladder extended only one foot above…
Eyelematic Manufacturing Company, Inc.
Power-press, chain, cylinder, and electrical items produce $5,300
Eyelematic Manufacturing Company, Inc. made small metal parts at its Connecticut facility. Administrative Law Judge Richard DeBenedetto vacated a flammable-container item because the Secretary's amendment shifted the theory from approved container design to liquid transfer without evidence fitting…
Cherry Hill Stairs, Inc., t/a Harmonson Stairs
Repeated refusal to guard table saw results in $12,000 willful penalty
Cherry Hill Stairs, trading as Harmonson Stairs, operated a custom stair-building shop in New Jersey. Employees used a hand-fed circular ripsaw without the required hood, spreader, and anti-kickback fingers, even though the guarding unit was nearby. The company argued that guards were infeasible…
Waterbury Style, Inc.
Kick-press violation reclassified as nonserious, $750 assessed
Waterbury Style used a foot-operated kick press to assemble belt buckles. The operator needed both hands during the process and at times placed fingers in, or within a few inches of, the press's point of operation. The judge found the guarding violation clear because the standard requires a device…
Clarence Wall and Ceiling, Inc.
Tool and platform violations affirmed, $2,475 assessed
Clarence Wall and Ceiling was erecting metal roof framing at a New York construction site when OSHA found an angle grinder without its designed guard, an excessively worn grinding wheel, and an aerial work platform without a building-side guardrail. The judge affirmed the grinder-guard item because…
New England Industrial Roofing Co.
Roof perimeter-guarding item affirmed serious $750, warning-line item vacated
New England Industrial Roofing was removing an old built-up roof and installing a new one on a two-story building when an OSHA officer inspected in December 1992 and cited two serious fall-protection violations: no motion-stopping-safety (guardrail) system at the roof edge, and no warning lines…
W.E. Darin Construction Enterprises, Inc.
Connector ladder item vacated
W.E. Darin Construction Enterprises was erecting structural steel at a New York jobsite when a connector fell while climbing a column and later died from his injuries. OSHA alleged that Darin violated the stairway-and-ladder standard by not providing a ladder for access to the connection point. The…
Southwest Refractory, Inc.
Suspended-load violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Southwest Refractory hired an independent crane company to turn a 17,000-pound steel pipe while Southwest applied refractory lining at its Sapulpa, Oklahoma, facility. A Southwest employee crouched beneath the suspended pipe to move supporting timbers, and the pipe fell on him; he later died from…
Hartford Roofing Co., Inc.
Warning-line violation affirmed on 69-foot-wide roof
Hartford Roofing was performing built-up roofing work on a low-pitched roof that was about 69 feet wide and 19 feet above the ground. Two employees moving sheetrock worked about eight feet from the roof edge. Hartford used only a safety monitor, but the judge found that the roof-width rule required…
Bancker Construction Corp.
Trench support violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Bancker Construction was installing a protective system in an excavation for a telephone equipment vault in Bethpage, New York. Employees entered the excavation while the support system was only partly installed, and the trench was more than five feet deep with vertical walls in unstable Type C…
Magor Plumbing & Heating Co.
Citations vacated because OSHA did not prove Magor employed the workers
Magor Plumbing & Heating was cited in August 1991 for alleged serious and nonserious violations found during an OSHA inspection of a church under construction in Bayside, New York, with $7,650 in proposed penalties on the serious citation. The only contested issue was whether Magor was the employer…
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.