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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MDLG, Inc. dba Phenix Lumber Co.
Dismissal vacated after the parties reported settlement
OSHA issued MDLG, doing business as Phenix Lumber, several citations in March 2009. The administrative law judge denied the Secretary permission to file a complaint 83 days late in two consolidated dockets and vacated the affected citations. While the Secretary's petition for review was pending…
MDLG, Inc. dba Phenix Lumber Co.
Dismissal vacated after the parties reported settlement
OSHA issued MDLG, doing business as Phenix Lumber, several citations in March 2009. The administrative law judge denied the Secretary permission to file a complaint 83 days late in two consolidated dockets and vacated the affected citations. While the Secretary's petition for review was pending…
Degen Excavating, Inc.
Trenching violations affirmed with reduced penalties
An OSHA compliance officer saw a Degen Excavating employee working in an 8.6-foot-deep trench without a ladder, daily competent-person inspection, or cave-in protection. Two supervisors knew and agreed that the employee would enter the trench without the available trench box because they expected…
International Transportation Service, Inc.
Marine-terminal fall citation affirmed with a reduced penalty
International Transportation Service operated a marine terminal where containers were being unloaded from a vessel. During an OSHA inspection, a hatch boss came to the unguarded edge of a hatch cover to speak with a senior manager and stood within three feet of a drop exceeding nine feet without…
JPC Group, Inc.
Excavation violations affirmed after an adjoining building collapsed
JPC Group was hired to perform foundation underpinning beside two buildings at a Philadelphia construction site. Test digs revealed a deteriorated foundation wall, but JPC later excavated along it without shoring or another support system, and the rear of the building collapsed. Workers had…
Texas Erectors, Inc.
Steel-erection fall citation affirmed after connector exception rejected
OSHA observed two Texas Erectors employees working more than 16 feet above the ground with harnesses that were not tied off. The company argued that the employees were connectors who did not need fall protection until 30 feet, but the judge found they were not placing or connecting structural…
Extendicare Health Care Services, Inc., d/b/a Arbors at Delaware
General-duty ladder item vacated for lack of employer knowledge
Arbors at Delaware was a skilled nursing facility where its maintenance director fell about nine feet while descending from an attic using a six-foot stepladder. He broke his wrist, suffered a head injury, and remained in a coma at the time of the hearing. The judge found that standing on the…
GEM, Inc.
Electrical PPE and insulated-equipment items affirmed after an arc blast
GEM repaired an electrical power system at a county courthouse after lightning damage, and an arc blast occurred while its crew performed a polarity test on energized equipment. The judge found that replacing the damaged bus section was maintenance rather than construction, so the general industry…
Summit Contractors, Inc.
General contractor liable for a subcontractor's unprotected scaffold work
Summit was the general contractor for a college dormitory project where a subcontractor's employees worked on scaffolds more than ten feet above a lower level without fall protection. OSHA cited Summit under its multi-employer citation policy even though Summit did not create the condition and its…
Jose Luna Roofing
Serious fall-protection citation affirmed after roofers worked 41 feet above ground
OSHA observed Jose Luna Roofing employees performing roofing work without fall protection on a low-slope roof approximately 41 feet above the ground. The owner was present during the inspection and confirmed that the workers were his employees and that he knew they were on the roof. The company did…
McQueary Industries, Inc.
Default judgment set aside for further settlement proceedings
An administrative law judge dismissed McQueary Industries' timely notice of contest after the company failed to answer the Secretary's complaint or respond to a show-cause order. That default affirmed several serious and other-than-serious citations with proposed penalties totaling $8,400. In its…
Choice Fabricators, Inc.
Lockout and power-press violations produced $14,000 in penalties
Choice Fabricators manufactured metal parts with mechanical power presses at its Alabama plant. OSHA cited the company for excluding die changes from its lockout/tagout program, improperly using safety blocks, failing to inspect its energy-control procedures, failing to train die-setters, and…
Gale Insulation
Residential fall-protection citation vacated for lack of employer knowledge
A Gale Insulation employee installed chimney flashing on a residential roof about 25 feet above the ground without fall protection. A harness and lanyards were in the crew's truck, and the employee had been trained in Spanish and English, had demonstrated how to use the equipment, and had…
Lake County Sewer Company
Excavation workers found to be Lake County Sewer employees
An excavation collapsed during sewer work in Willowick, Ohio, injuring one worker. On remand from the Commission, the judge reconsidered whether Lake County Sewer or Brennan Excavating employed the three excavation workers at the site. The judge credited the workers' testimony and payroll records…
Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc. dba Six Flags Great America
Health violations affirmed with $50,000 in penalties
OSHA inspected maintenance, painting, sign, welding, first aid, and park-service operations at Six Flags Great America and issued a 29-item serious citation. The allegations involved peroxide storage, chemical-resistant gloves, respirators, lead, hexavalent chromium, bloodborne pathogens…
Menominee Tribal Enterprises
Thirteen stipulated citation items affirmed after coverage ruling
Menominee Tribal Enterprises and the Secretary stipulated to the violations, their classifications, and the proposed penalties, leaving only whether the Occupational Safety and Health Act applied to the cited activities. The judge had previously ruled that the Act applied. The Menominee Indian…
Custom Copper & Slate, Ltd.
Lead-citation settlement remained binding despite late contest
OSHA issued Custom Copper & Slate a fourteen-item serious citation under the lead-in-construction standard with proposed penalties totaling $4,500. On the final day of the contest period, the company signed an informal settlement affirming every item and reducing the total penalty to $750. More…
G.A. West & Co., Inc.
Pulp-machine lockout citation vacated for lack of close-contact proof
G.A. West was a resident contractor at an Alabama pulp mill where an employee was seriously injured near a pulp machine and later died. OSHA's citation addressed different employees who had installed electrical conduit beneath the operating machine several days earlier without locking it out. The…
Orlowski Company, Inc.
Stairway and willful fall-protection penalties totaled $56,600
Orlowski Company admitted one serious stairway violation and two willful fall-protection violations at a Chicago construction site, contesting only the penalty amounts. Employees used stairways without handrails, a foreman performed masonry work on an unguarded scaffold more than 12 feet high, and…
E. Smalis Painting Co., Inc.
Commission reduced lead-case penalties to $1.09 million
E. Smalis Painting removed lead-based paint from the Tarentum Bridge using abrasive blasting inside a tarp containment. OSHA measured six workers at lead exposure levels ranging from more than 18 to 669 times the permissible exposure limit, then cited four serious and 202 willful violations with…
A. G. Carter Construction Company
Repeated trench warnings supported two willful violations
A. G. Carter Construction installed underground utilities in trenches near Prattville, Alabama. After a fire marshal warned owner Alton Carter about the lack of cave-in protection, a ladder, proper spoil-pile placement, and water controls, similar conditions remained when OSHA inspected one week…
Big Sky Well Service
Grinder use near crude-oil vapors led to $10,150 in penalties
Big Sky Well Service sent two employees to remove and replace a leaking crude-oil storage tank at an Ohio well site. A supervisor used an electric grinder to cut a notch in the tank while another employee worked on top, and the tank exploded, throwing that employee into nearby woods and causing a…
Dierzen-Kewanee Heavy Industries, LTD
Unabated hazards resulted in $133,100 in penalties
Dierzen-Kewanee manufactured dump-truck bodies at a former boiler factory in Illinois. After settling earlier OSHA citations, the company paid only the first penalty installment, did not provide requested abatement information, and left many cited conditions uncorrected for a follow-up inspection…
Swallow Construction Corp.
Eighth cave-in violation drew a $33,000 penalty
OSHA inspected Swallow Construction's Illinois sewer and water project after an employee was electrocuted when a backhoe contacted live overhead power lines. The parties settled all citation items except an allegation that employees worked without cave-in protection in a trench more than five feet…
Andrew Electric Company
Unsecured breaker-box key led to $6,900 in penalties
An Andrew Electric electrician was electrocuted while installing fluorescent light fixtures near an energized junction box at a Georgia dealership remodeling project. The judge found that the company's safety program lacked adequate electrical-safety rules and that the electrician did not receive…
WCI Steel, Inc.
Crane runway-support inspection violation drew a $2,000 penalty
A 40-ton overhead crane collapsed at WCI Steel's Ohio plant while moving steel slabs, but no one was injured. OSHA cited WCI for failing to inspect the crane's runway support structure, maintaining an improperly set hoist limit switch, and overloading the crane. The judge held that a complete…
CPM Constructors
Flagger-sign citation failed under the incorporated traffic-control rules
CPM Constructors performed paving work in a busy pedestrian and retail area in Freeport, Maine. After moving its crew and flagger to another portion of the work zone, CPM left a Flagger Ahead sign about four-tenths of a mile from the remaining flagger for approximately 45 minutes. OSHA cited the…
FM Home Improvement, Inc.
Roofers were employees despite contractor documents
OSHA found seven roofers working without fall protection on a steep residential roof approximately 31 feet above the ground. FM Home Improvement did not dispute the unsafe condition, but argued that the workers belonged to an independent subcontractor and were not its employees. Applying the…
The Samuels Group, Inc.
Missing scaffold top rail resulted in a $1,000 penalty
The Samuels Group used a scaffold for masonry work approximately 60 feet above the ground. Its cross-bracing was about 32 inches high, which could not substitute for the required top rail, and stacked masonry blocks were neither high nor stable enough to serve as equivalent guarding. The judge…
United Parcel Service, Inc.
Affected-employee objections sent settlement issues back to the judge
UPS sought Commission review after an administrative law judge affirmed a serious citation with eight instances and assessed a $4,400 penalty. While review was pending, UPS and the Secretary negotiated a corporate-wide settlement, and affected employee Samuel Bucalo filed objections and several…
A. L. Grading Contractors, Inc.
Unsafe excavation and untrained flagger drew $25,500 in penalties
OSHA found an untrained employee directing traffic and two workers in a 9.2-foot excavation without cave-in protection or a safe means of egress at an Atlanta-area shopping-center project. The judge rejected the employee-misconduct defense to the training item because the company did not establish…
Davis H. Elliot Construction Company, Inc.
Reenergization failures led to $11,300 in penalties
Davis H. Elliot rebuilt an Ohio electric distribution system while existing lines remained in service. After three workers failed to report a changed assignment, the foreman relied on an incomplete all-clear and ordered a line energized while one worker was still on a pole, causing his…
Kandey Company, Inc.
Cave-in violation reduced from willful to serious
Kandey employees worked in an excavation to connect a new building to a water main in Clarence, New York. The judge found that a portable ladder used for access did not extend three feet above the landing and that the excavation exceeded five feet, was not entirely stable rock, and lacked cave-in…
Kone, Inc.
Fall protection was required on stationary elevator car tops
A Kone apprentice technician was found dead at the bottom of an elevator shaft after being assigned to clean and paint the tops of two elevator cars. The judge found that working on a stationary car top exposed the technician to a 30-foot fall through openings at the back and side, and that a…
Standard Concrete Products, Inc.
Rotten dunnage was not reasonably discoverable before girder failure
Standard Concrete loaded an 86-ton precast bridge girder onto a barge when a timber supporting its pedestal failed, causing the girder to crack and strike an employee who died from his injuries. The judge held that the longshoring standard applied because the girder had already been landed on the…
Guamcell Communications
Supervisor's parapet shortcut was unpreventable misconduct
An acting Guamcell supervisor stood without fall protection on the parapet of a ten-story building while adjusting a cellular antenna. Guamcell admitted the standard applied, the supervisor violated it, and a fall could cause death or serious injury. The judge found that the company nevertheless…
Stark Excavation, Inc.
Documented safety program proved supervisory misconduct defense
A Stark Excavation superintendent and two laborers stripped bridge forms without fall protection while exposed to a 14-foot, 10-inch drop to rocks below. The company did not dispute the unsafe condition but argued that the supervisor's lapse during a 10-to-15-minute task was unforeseeable…
Beverly Healthcare-Hillview
Bloodborne-pathogen follow-up items affirmed after court remand
The Third Circuit vacated an earlier Commission decision that had thrown out two bloodborne-pathogens citation items against Beverly Healthcare-Hillview. The court determined that the employer had fair notice of the Secretary's interpretation of the cited post-exposure evaluation and follow-up…
Ernie's Tree Service
Commission approved settlement after directing review
Ernie's Tree Service petitioned for Commission review of the administrative law judge's disposition, and the Commission directed the case for review and requested briefing. The parties then signed a stipulation and settlement agreement that the Secretary submitted to the Commission. After reviewing…
A. G. Mazzocchi, Inc.
Altered blood-lead report supported willful violations and $105,000 in penalties
A. G. Mazzocchi employees torch-cut lead-painted steel while demolishing a large crane at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The Commission held that the lead-in-construction standard's high-risk-task presumption and monitoring evidence established that the main torch-cutter was covered by…
WR Exterior Design Construction, Inc.
Late-answer dismissal set aside for further inquiry
An administrative law judge dismissed WR Exterior Design Construction's notice of contest after the company failed to answer the Secretary's complaint, affirming citations and $19,600 in proposed penalties. The Commission found that the pro se company apparently never received the show-cause order…
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Employee letter required review of possible party status
OSHA cited the Metropolitan Museum of Art for six violations with $7,500 in proposed penalties, and the Secretary and museum later submitted a settlement reducing the total penalty to $3,700. An affected employee had earlier sent a letter asking that his materials be considered and raising…
StarTran, Inc.
Court's partial remand returned recordkeeping case for further proceedings
The Fifth Circuit reviewed the Commission's earlier decision affirming a StarTran citation under OSHA's recordkeeping-access rule. The court affirmed the Commission in part and remanded the case in part in an unpublished opinion. After receiving the court's mandate, the Commission remanded the…
Masonry Arts, Inc.
Scaffold planking, access, and repeat guardrail items totaled $12,500
Masonry Arts employees performed block repair work from a scaffold platform approximately 12.5 feet above the ground at a new Florida high school gymnasium. The judge found a five-inch gap between planks, no safe ladder access, and no guardrail or other fall protection on the platform. He rejected…
Sanderson Farms, Inc.
Unstable freezer pallet storage resulted in a $6,300 penalty
Sanderson Farms stored 2,200-to-2,500-pound pallets of frozen chicken on an aging freezer rack system with frequently damaged legs and little margin for placement error. A maintenance employee died from smoke inhalation and burns after beginning to cut a damaged rack leg while loaded pallets…
FABI Construction Company, Inc., and PRO Management Group
Court required a factual basis for penalty increase
The D.C. Circuit reviewed the administrative law judge's decision after it became a final Commission order without discretionary review. The court granted review of the penalty for a concrete-formwork violation and found that the judge increased the Secretary's proposed $2,500 penalty to $7,000…
Elan Lawn and Landscape Service, Inc.
One-day-late contest required an evidentiary record
Elan Lawn filed its notice of contest one day after the deadline calculated from a disputed certified-mail receipt, and the judge denied relief without a hearing. The Commission noted that the Secretary's dismissal request did not comply with the rule requiring a separate motion and consultation…
Wynnewood Refining Company
Delayed flare-line replacement was willful and drew a $63,000 penalty
Wynnewood Refining Company operated an Oklahoma petroleum refinery that used hydrofluoric acid in its alkylation unit. OSHA alleged that the company violated the process safety management standard by failing to correct deficiencies in the unit's flare line before further use or in a safe and timely…
PSP Monotech Industries
Inconsistent suspended-load training defeated the misconduct defense
PSP Monotech Industries operated a sheet-metal fabrication plant where employees used an overhead floor crane to move large panels. A 3,700-pound panel fell from a clamp, killing one employee and seriously injuring another. The Secretary cited PSP under the general duty clause for failing to keep…
Pospiech Contracting, Inc.
Unprotected trench citation affirmed with a $5,000 penalty
Pospiech Contracting installed underground utilities at a Florida construction project. OSHA found employees had entered a vertical-sided Type C soil excavation measured at 6 to 6½ feet deep without a protective system. The company argued that the excavation was less than 5 feet deep, that it…
Prime Roofing Corporation
Deficient roof warning lines led to a repeat citation and $7,500 penalty
Prime Roofing Corporation provided warning lines while workers removed roof ballast in preparation for replacing a low-slope roof about 20 feet above the ground. The warning lines ran down the center of the roof rather than at least 6 feet from the exposed edges, and workers were observed near the…
KS Energy Services, Inc.
Inadequate road-work warnings supported a serious citation
KS Energy Services installed a natural gas pipeline in a traffic-control zone along a Wisconsin county road with a 55 mph speed limit. The Commission found that the company failed to provide advance warning conveying highway conditions and how motorists should move through the work zone, as…
Mustang Engineering Holdings, Inc.
Missing trench exit affirmed while cave-in item was vacated
Mustang Engineering employees entered a trench to survey a newly installed pipe. OSHA cited the company because the trench lacked a safe means of egress and was not sloped enough for its Class B soil. The judge found that the missing ladder or other exit was obvious to Mustang's foreman, so the…
Burch Construction, Inc.
Climbing a scaffold guardrail led to a serious access citation
Burch Construction employees worked from a scaffold at a military facility in San Diego. An employee climbed between the scaffold and roof by stepping on a scaffold guardrail instead of using compliant access, exposing him to a potential 25-foot fall. The judge found the conduct foreseeable and…
J.C. Watson Company
Onion packing operations were subject to general-industry standards
J.C. Watson Company grew onions and operated an Idaho facility that cleaned, sorted, graded, packaged, and prepared them for shipment. After an employee's arm was caught under a moving conveyor, OSHA cited the company under numerous general-industry standards. Watson argued that its packing work…
SSA Cooper, LLC
Lashing rods across a vessel catwalk created a serious trip hazard
SSA Cooper performed stevedoring operations aboard a cargo container vessel near Savannah, Georgia. Longshoremen left heavy lashing rods across a 22-inch-wide catwalk while an SSA Cooper foreman repeatedly walked the area to check container placements. The judge found the catwalk was an active work…
B&N&K Restoration Co., Inc.
Unsecured and unmarked skylight cover led to $3,000 in penalties
B&N&K Restoration served as a prime contractor on a school addition and placed two overlapping steel sheets over a skylight opening. The sheets were not adequately secured or marked, and a welder for another contractor mistook them for material intended to cover a nearby elevator shaft. When he…
Cagle's, Inc.
Waste trailer was a confined space despite its intended use
Cagle's used a trailer to hold carbon dioxide-treated waste breading at its Alabama poultry plant. Two employees died of asphyxiation after entering the trailer, and OSHA cited the company for failing to inform employees of the permit-required confined space. After an Eleventh Circuit remand, the…
D’Allessandro Corporation
Unprotected 5½-foot trench led to a serious citation
D’Allessandro Corporation employees entered a trench in South Boston to cut an existing pipe and install a fitting. OSHA measured the vertical-sided trench at 5½ feet deep where the employees were working, and the Type C soil was adjacent to a heavily traveled road. The company disputed the…
Fern Valley Excavating, Inc.
All items vacated because the company was not the employer
Fern Valley Excavating was engaged in excavation contracting and landscaping. OSHA investigated an accident at an Ohio jobsite, and the threshold issue was whether Fern Valley employed the workers at the site on the accident date. The judge found that it did not. All four citation items were…
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.