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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Northern States Power Company
Coal-conveyor electrical violations fell outside the utility exemption
Northern States Power operated a coal-fired electric generating plant in South Dakota. OSHA cited a pump motor and terminal box used to spray antifreeze on a coal conveyor because the equipment was not dust-ignition-proof for the combustible-dust location. The company admitted the conditions…
The Proko Company of Texas, Inc.
Annual asbestos examinations required at any airborne exposure level
The Proko Company manufactured paint and drywall products using bagged asbestos in its mixing process. Its monitoring showed airborne concentrations well below the permissible exposure limit, and the judge concluded that annual medical examinations were unnecessary at those levels. The Commission…
Gristede Brothers, Inc.
Retail meatcutter protective-equipment citations vacated
Gristede Brothers operated retail grocery stores with meat departments in New York. OSHA alleged that meatcutters needed metal-mesh gloves for their holding hands and, at one store, protective aprons while cutting and boning meat. The judge distinguished the stores' mostly boxed-meat retail…
Oil Sales & Processing Corporation
Defective access-ladder items affirmed, lifesaving-equipment items vacated
Oil Sales & Processing performed ship repair and tank cleaning at piers in Bayonne, New Jersey. Employees used a repaired wooden ladder as the only access to a vessel even though it had a broken side rail, inadequate extension above the deck, and insufficient securing against displacement. The…
Idaho Travertine Corporation
Most stone-processing citations affirmed with penalties reduced to $125
Idaho Travertine Corporation processed quarried stone at a small plant in Idaho Falls. OSHA issued one serious radial-saw citation and 13 nonserious items covering noise, personal protective equipment, machinery, compressed gas, emergency flushing, exits, and housekeeping. The judge affirmed the…
Ebasco Services, Inc.
General-duty snap-hook charge vacated for lack of a recognized hazard
Ebasco Services was the engineering and general contractor constructing a coal-fired power plant in Iowa. A boilermaker fell about 60 feet and died while using a safety belt and lanyard with a single-locking snap hook. OSHA alleged under the general duty clause that the spring latch could allow the…
Amerace Corporation
Chromic-acid examination case remanded for the employer's evidence
Amerace manufactured chrome-plated plastic parts using an automated process with chromic-acid washes. About 20 employees worked near the plating area, detectable chromic-acid mist was present, and the company had not provided physical examinations to detect early ulceration. The judge dismissed the…
Hillsdale Lumber & Manufacturing, Inc.
Planer tag citation vacated because the alleged offense was failure to lock out
Hillsdale operated a sawmill where an employee was replacing planer cutter heads and cover plates. The planer switch was off and could be locked out, but it was not locked and carried no "Do Not Start" tag. The judge found that the actual concern was failure to lock out the controls, while the…
Tip-Top Roofers, Inc. and Western Waterproofing Co., Inc.
Flat-roof guarding citations vacated
Tip-Top Roofers and Western Waterproofing were separately cited for failing to install perimeter guarding on flat roofs. The administrative law judge affirmed both citations. The Commission consolidated the cases because they presented the same factual and legal issue. Applying its intervening…
Valmore N. LeClerc, doing business as Major Construction Company
Serious excavation citation affirmed with penalty reduced to $250
Major Construction had employees working in a deep excavation beside a house in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The excavation walls contained unstable soil, showed prior sloughing and falling material, and lacked adequate shoring or sloping. The judge found a serious violation because a wall collapse…
O.K. Construction Company, Inc.
Crane, hard-hat, and recordkeeping items affirmed with penalties reduced
O.K. Construction was performing excavation work with a crawler crane at a West Virginia lift-station project. The judge affirmed a repeated fire-extinguisher violation and nonserious items involving missing crane information, an unbarricaded swing radius, absent annual-inspection records, an…
Spencer Leathers, a Division of Spencer Foods, Inc.
Hydrogen-sulfide general-duty citation affirmed with a $1,000 penalty
Spencer Leathers operated a tannery that received sulfuric acid and sodium sulphydrate through nearby intake pipes. A delivery of sulfuric acid was connected to the unlabeled sodium sulphydrate line after employees, including the person in charge, incorrectly identified it, producing hydrogen…
B.W. Drilling, Incorporated
Derrick-ladder violation affirmed with penalty reduced to $175
B.W. Drilling operated an oil-and-gas drilling rig with a fixed ladder rising about 90 feet up the derrick. The company stipulated that rung spacing exceeded 12 inches, rear clearance was less than seven inches at some points, and the ladder had neither a cage nor an alternative ladder-safety…
Navarro Contracting Company
Serious excavation charges vacated, spoil-bank and exit items affirmed
Navarro Contracting was installing a large sewer pipe in a deep excavation and adjoining trench at a Fort Worth shopping-center project. OSHA alleged unstable walls, inadequate precautions near backfill, insufficient trench protection, heavy-equipment loading, a spoil bank too close to the edge…
Clifford Olsen and Melvin Olsen, a partnership doing business as Olsen Excavating
Serious trench citation affirmed with penalty reduced to $100
Olsen Excavating was installing storm-sewer pipe in a Boise trench with one employee and one of the two owning partners working at the bottom. The trench was more than 12 feet deep, only about three feet wide at the bottom, cut in sandy soil, and nearly vertical with tension cracks and minimal…
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…
B & B Insulation, Inc.
Safety-belt citation affirmed for pipe-rack work 21 feet above ground
B & B Insulation employees installed insulation while straddling and walking along spaced pipes about 21 feet above the ground and nine feet above energized trolley lines. A foreman's trailing stainless-steel wire contacted the power lines, causing his death and causing another employee to lose…
West Point Pepperell, Inc.
Textile-mill noise and cotton-dust citation vacated
West Point Pepperell employees worked in two textile weave rooms where measured noise levels exceeded the permissible exposure table. The Commission majority held that the Secretary did not prove technologically feasible engineering controls because the proposed loom modifications had not…
D & H Pump Service, Inc.
Excavation and barricade violations affirmed
D & H Pump Service performed work in a 14-foot-deep excavation whose nearly vertical sides had begun sloughing and collapsing. The judge found that the company's working vice president and a borrowed equipment operator were protected employees, or alternatively were workers exposed to hazards that…
Burk Construction Corporation
Repeated flying-form fall violations affirmed with penalty reduced to $1,000
Burk Construction performed concrete-form work with employees placing jacks near an unguarded perimeter on the seventeenth level of a building. Employees, including a foreman, worked within about two feet of the edge without safety belts, lifelines, nets, or equivalent fall protection. The judge…
Childress Painting Company, Inc.
Scaffold violations affirmed with $275 penalty
Childress Painting employees worked from a narrow aluminum platform about 17 feet above a concrete floor without standard guardrails, and two employees traversed it without remaining continuously tied off. The judge held that the company's safety-belt system did not excuse the missing guardrails…
Aniero Concrete Company, Inc.
Floor-edge and opening citations narrowed with penalties reduced to $600
Aniero Concrete was the concrete subcontractor on a ten-story office-building project in New Jersey. Its employees removed perimeter cables and floor-opening covers while cleanup and crane removal work was still underway, placing workers within one to three feet of unguarded edges and near loosely…
Crushed Toast Company
Exit and machine-guarding citations reduced to nonserious
Crushed Toast Company's bread-crumb plant had a locked designated exit, another exit that was difficult to open, and unguarded drive components on two ovens. The judge found the exit violation nonserious because the fire risk was negligible and a wide overhead door remained available, reducing that…
Kiddie Circus, Inc.
Failure-to-abate penalties reduced to $1,390
Kiddie Circus did not contest an earlier seven-item citation, making the violations and original penalties final Commission orders. A reinspection found that the small amusement-ride operator had taken no action to correct any of the cited conditions and had continued operating its rides. The judge…
Southwestern Roofing & Sheet Metal Co.
Fuel-container item affirmed and roof citation vacated
Southwestern Roofing used an unapproved five-gallon gasoline can to refuel a tar-pot engine even though an approved container was available nearby. The judge affirmed that item without penalty because the can lacked a self-closing lid and flame-arresting screen, creating a preventable fire or…
Yosemite Park and Curry Co.
Electrical and repeat housekeeping violations affirmed
An inspection of Yosemite Park and Curry's transportation garage produced six contested items involving a roof leak, an extension cord, gasoline cans, housekeeping, tire storage, and a stair-landing obstruction. The judge affirmed the defective extension-cord item because untagged equipment stored…
Hausmann Service Corporation
Remote-egress citation vacated
Hausmann Service occupied a fireproof, mostly open woodworking shop with two unobstructed exit doors about 25 feet apart on the east wall. The judge found that the small occupant load, lack of combustible materials near the exits, and absence of obstructions made those exits sufficient for…
RKL Building Specialities Co., Inc.
Power-press guarding violation affirmed with $100 penalty
RKL's mechanical power press had guarded access at the front but unguarded 10-inch side openings only a few inches from the point of operation. The judge found that the press operator was not reasonably exposed because he would release the foot pedal and shut off power before addressing a…
Cyprus Mines Corporation d/b/a Cyprus Wire and Cable Company
Noise citation affirmed with extended abatement
Noise measurements in Cyprus Mines' rod mill ranged from 94 to 116 dBA and exceeded the permissible exposure limits in the cited standard. The judge found that feasible engineering controls could reduce the noise and that the company had not supported its claim of economic infeasibility with…
K M Engineering Company
Sideboom rope, records, and worn-shackle violations affirmed
K M Engineering used knots to connect wire ropes on two sideboom tractors, maintained inadequate annual inspection records, and continued using an excessively worn boom-block shackle. The judge affirmed the knotted-rope item without penalty because knots weakened the ropes and exposed workers…
First Colony Corporation
Silo fall-protection violation affirmed for $600
Three First Colony employees installed concrete caps on 75-foot silos while working within two or three feet of unguarded edges without belts, lifelines, nets, or other fall protection. The judge vacated the original guardrail allegation because the cited open-sided-floor standard did not apply to…
Onontario of Florida, Inc.
Repeated cave-in violation affirmed for $1,000
Onontario employees installed sewer pipe in an excavation about 12 feet deep where unstable sugar-sand walls had collapsed repeatedly and no shoring was in place. A trench box was available at the worksite but was not used until the compliance officer raised the hazard, after which another cave-in…
Allied Equipment Company
Numerous shop violations affirmed with a one-cent total penalty
Allied Equipment manufactured horse and stock trailers and repaired truck bodies and frames with five employees. The judge affirmed numerous nonserious violations involving flammable-liquid storage, fire extinguishers, machine and power-transmission guarding, grinder adjustments, a portable saw…
Anthony Izzo Company, Inc.
Unguarded masonry scaffolds and seven other items affirmed
Anthony Izzo Company was a masonry contractor with employees working on two tubular welded-frame scaffolds. The platforms were 15 and 19 feet above concrete, lacked guardrails, midrails, and toeboards, and had employees working below them where bricks or debris could fall. The judge found a serious…
Julius Hochman, d/b/a Hochman Roofing Company
Hard-hat item affirmed and roof-edge citation vacated
A Hochman Roofing ground worker stood below the edge of a roof where construction materials were located near the perimeter. The judge found that falling objects could strike the worker and affirmed the nonserious hard-hat violation with a $25 penalty. A separate serious citation alleged that two…
Drake Industries Inc.
Welding-ray protection violation affirmed without penalty
Drake Industries manufactured holding tanks in a workplace where employees could approach within 6 to 10 feet of unshielded arc-welding areas. The judge found that the company failed to protect adjacent workers with flameproof screens, shields, or appropriate goggles, exposing them to possible…
"AH" Metal Fabricators, Inc.
Ironworker point-of-operation citation affirmed with a $300 penalty
"AH" Metal Fabricators performed custom metal fabrication using a Mubea Ironworker with notching and hole-punching stations. Operators manually positioned metal close to the unguarded points of operation, creating a risk of finger or hand amputation. The judge rejected the employer's impossibility…
George B. Gaines, doing business as Western Steel Company
Water-container item affirmed and equipment items vacated
Western Steel Company was cited for an unmarked drinking-water container, a broken glass cover on an acetylene gauge, and alleged failure to inspect a leased crawler crane with bent boom lacings. The judge amended the pleadings to treat the corporation, rather than its president individually, as…
Central Meat Company
Exit, machine-guarding, and electrical violations affirmed
Central Meat Company operated a small meat-processing plant where an inspection found a slippery floor, locked rear doors, inadequately guarded bandsaws, and several electrical hazards. The judge vacated the housekeeping item because the company devoted substantial effort to continuous cleaning and…
Alder Electric Company, Inc.
Unguarded traffic-signal scaffold citation affirmed through supervisor knowledge
Alder Electric employees installed traffic signals from a scaffold platform erected in a dump-truck bed about 16 feet above pavement. The platform lacked guardrails and toeboards and was used in an intersection with passing traffic. The company argued that it had hired an experienced supervisor…
Underhill Construction Corp. and DIC Concrete Corp., trading as DIC-Underhill, a Joint Venture
Willful high-rise guardrail violation affirmed for $5,000
DIC-Underhill employees worked on the fifteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth floors of a high-rise construction project without required perimeter guardrails or equivalent fall protection. The Commission rejected the argument that the horse-scaffold standard displaced the open-sided-floor standard…
Republic Steel Corp.
Open-tank ventilation citation vacated
Republic Steel cleaned tubing in an open tank containing sodium hydroxide, using an exhaust rate below the control velocity listed in the cited ventilation standard. The operator's airborne exposure was only five percent of the applicable threshold limit value. Reading the open-tank provisions…
Erel Corporation
Spray-booth floor-paper citation vacated
Erel maintained Air Force ground-support equipment and used combustible paper on a spray-booth floor to collect paint overspray. OSHA cited the practice under a standard prohibiting combustible material in spray-booth construction and proposed a $60 penalty. The judge rejected Erel's claim that Air…
R.A. Pohl Construction Co., Inc.
Trench citation vacated over uncertain soil type
OSHA cited sewer contractor R.A. Pohl after employees worked in a roughly 16-foot-deep trench whose south and east sides were neither sloped nor shored. Pohl argued that the excavation passed through material solid enough to stand vertically without support. The witnesses gave conflicting…
B. & S. Roofing Co., Inc.
Defective-ladder item affirmed without penalty
B. & S. Roofing employees worked near the edge of a flat roof without personal fall-protection equipment and accessed the roof using an extension ladder with a broken pulley rung and splintered rails. The judge affirmed the defective-ladder item because the standard prohibited use of a ladder with…
Petrocelli Electric Co., Inc.
Hard-hat item affirmed and posting item vacated
OSHA cited electrical contractor Petrocelli for failing to post the required OSHA notice and for employees working without protective helmets at a Brooklyn construction site. The judge vacated the posting item because OSHA had not furnished the company with the notice before the inspection…
Julius Nasso Concrete Corporation
Horse-scaffold guardrail claim remanded for hearing
An employee allegedly worked on an unguarded horse scaffold only eight feet above its supporting floor but next to a building perimeter where a fall could extend about 100 feet. The judge granted summary judgment for the employer because the scaffold itself was less than ten feet high. The…
Limbach Company
Missing stair railing violation affirmed
Limbach employees used a flight of stairs leading to a work trailer that lacked a railing on one open side. The company admitted the stair configuration but argued that the stair width and a nearby storage box removed the fall hazard. The judge found that those conditions might reduce the…
Walker Construction Company
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA cited Walker Construction for ungrounded portable tools and uncovered or unbarricaded pier holes, proposing $85 in total penalties. Walker's vice president signed a notice of contest before the deadline, but a secretary did not mail it until five days after the statutory filing period expired…
Brown & Root, Inc.
Trenching citations vacated for lack of proof
OSHA cited Brown & Root after inspecting an underground utility project where employees were installing pipe in a trench. The citations alleged that the trench lacked an adequate exit and that its sides were not properly supported or sloped. The judge found that employees could reach an ascendable…
Spring Sheet Metal & Roofing Co., Inc.
Roof fall-protection citation vacated
Spring Sheet Metal employees worked on flat roof areas and accessed small upper roofs across sloped sections of a building with pagoda-like structures. OSHA alleged that the company failed to guard open roof edges and added an alternative catch-platform allegation for work involving the sloped…
Quick Erectors, Inc.
Window-installation fall citation vacated
Quick Erectors employees installed window frames at fifth-floor wall openings about 40 feet above the ground without midrails or safety belts. The judge found a fall hazard but concluded that a standard intermediate rail would obstruct the frame work and had to be removed for final window…
Zeller Machinery Co., Inc.
Late contest of machine-guarding citation dismissed
Zeller Machinery filed its written contest of a serious machine-guarding citation 25 working days after receiving the citation and proposed penalty. The company said it mistakenly believed the 15-day period began on the abatement date and had orally advised OSHA that it intended to contest. The…
Request Records, Inc.
Ladder, exit-sign, and storage violations affirmed
OSHA cited Request Records for leaving an unmarked defective ladder accessible near high storage shelves, failing to mark an exit route, and stacking boxed records so they leaned toward an employee aisle. The judge found that buying a replacement ladder did not remove the old ladder from service…
Flintco, Inc.
Hoist and radial-saw violations affirmed
OSHA cited Flintco during construction of a high-rise hospital addition for a personnel hoist without guy lines, employees working near an unguarded edge without safety belts, a radial arm saw that did not return automatically, and an unguarded roof edge. The judge affirmed the hoist violation…
Leo J. Martone & Associates, Inc.
Crane-boom fall protection violation affirmed
An OSHA compliance officer observed Martone's crane operator walking on a horizontal tower-crane boom about 70 feet above the ground without guardrails or a safety belt attached to a lifeline. The judge vacated the serious citation, but the Commission reversed because inspection duties on the boom…
Florida Power & Light Co.
Commission excuses a slightly late notice of contest and orders a hearing
Florida Power & Light Co. wanted to contest an OSHA citation but filed its written notice of contest three days late. The company's safety manager had told OSHA's acting area director in person, within the 15-working-day window, that the company would contest, and he had already prepared the…
Dic-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Willful guardrail violation affirmed
Dic-Underhill employed about 80 people performing concrete work at the World Trade Center construction site. OSHA found two accessible open-sided floor locations without guardrails and also cited missing fire extinguishing equipment near a stairway. The Commission affirmed the guardrail violation…
Morris Enterprises, Inc.
Saw-guard and stair-railing items affirmed
The Commission reviewed two items the judge had vacated at Morris Enterprises' building-supply operation. An unguarded table saw was available for employee use, and saw trimmings, the company president's testimony, and the walkaround representative's statement supported a finding that it was…
Weyerhaeuser Company
Noise-control citation vacated for lack of feasibility proof
After an earlier remand, the remaining issue was whether engineering controls for noise at Weyerhaeuser's operation were economically feasible. The record showed that vinyl curtains near a single-facer machine would cost $6,000 to $8,000 while reducing sound by only one or two decibels. The judge…
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.