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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Moniaros Contracting Corporation
Settlement order set aside over employer objections
An ALJ approved a stipulated settlement that would have reduced eight proposed penalties from $5,560 to $3,000. Moniaros then sent the judge a letter objecting to certain terms of the order. The Commission treated the letter as a petition for discretionary review and found that the existing record…
Central Brass Manufacturing Co.
EAJA award adjusted to $13,520
Central Brass sought attorney fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act after prevailing on several noise, lead, and silica citation items. An ALJ awarded $13,250, and the Secretary challenged the method used to allocate fees and expenses. The Commission held that it reviews its…
The Specialist of the South, Inc.
$3,000 penalty affirmed for 39 serious items
The Specialists operated a small furniture repair, refinishing, and upholstery business using flammable and toxic materials. OSHA cited 39 serious violations, primarily involving fire and explosion hazards, and proposed $9,900 in penalties. An ALJ affirmed every serious item but assessed a combined…
Choice Electric Corporation
Pro se default remanded for factual inquiry
An ALJ entered default after Choice Electric failed to answer the Secretary's complaint, affirming two citations and assessing a $520 penalty. The company appeared without counsel and said it believed that returning a designation-of-representative form, requesting simplified proceedings, or filing…
National Steel and Shipbuilding Company
Settlement approval set aside for union-input inquiry
Three inspections of NASSCO's San Diego shipyard produced hundreds of alleged violations and proposed penalties totaling $165,100. The Secretary and NASSCO settled, but two employee unions challenged the judges' approval orders. The Commission found the agreement deficient because service on the…
Potomac Electric Power Company
Trench-support citation settled for $1,000
OSHA cited PEPCO after employees entered an approximately 11.5-foot-deep trench before an adequate support system was installed. An ALJ affirmed the trench-support violation with a $200 penalty and severed a separate ladder-access allegation. During Commission review, the parties settled the…
Shank-Ohbayashi, Inc.
Underground-construction citations settled for $4,600
An ALJ had affirmed two willful underground-construction violations and assessed $11,000, while vacating a general duty clause item and another underground-construction item. The parties settled during Commission review. The Secretary changed the characterization of the two affirmed violations and…
Vern's Manufacturing, Inc.
Late-contest dismissal remanded for factual record
OSHA issued Vern's Manufacturing a $2,100 failure-to-abate notification for unguarded points of operation on two iron worker machines. The family-run company appeared without counsel and maintained that its informal conference, phone calls, and a letter to the OSHA area director served as a timely…
Bethlehem Steel Corporation
Furnace lockout case settled for $6,500
Bethlehem Steel used a flag-and-tag procedure to protect employees repairing equipment at its basic oxygen furnaces from unexpected movement or energization. OSHA alleged that the procedure did not provide positive control of power sources and cited the company under the general duty clause. An ALJ…
American Asbestos Control Co.
Asbestos-removal citations withdrawn
American Asbestos Control removed insulation from an aluminizing pot without a negative-pressure enclosure or a connected decontamination area. A nearby bulk sample contained 70 percent asbestos, although the contractor's air samples were well below the permissible exposure limit. The ALJ held that…
Armour Food Company
Two guarding items affirmed and six items vacated
OSHA cited multiple conditions at Armour's meat-processing plant, and the Commission reviewed selected personal-protective-equipment, machine-guarding, power-transmission, centrifuge, and compressed-gas items. It vacated the mesh-glove item because OSHA did not prove that sharpening slicer blades…
Trumid Construction Co., Inc.
Serious trench-support and hard-hat violations affirmed
A Trumid employee was fatally injured when a trench wall collapsed during pipe-laying work, and the company did not report the accident to OSHA. The ALJ vacated the trench-support item after measuring depth from a bench below the original ground level, but affirmed a hard-hat violation. The…
Calang Corporation
Willful trench violations affirmed with $8,000 penalty
Calang employees and the company president worked in a roughly nine-foot-deep sewer trench with sandy soil, inadequate sloping, no shoring, and a spoil pile at the trench edge. Before excavation began, the OSHA inspector told the president that the trench needed approximately one-to-one sloping or…
General Electric Co.
Settlement remanded for employee-union input
GE and the Secretary submitted a settlement stating that the employee union had participated in negotiations, but the union told the ALJ that it had been excluded. The ALJ approved the agreement only five days after it was mailed to the union, without allowing the required ten-day response period…
General Motors Corp., Delco Electronics Division
Union given renewed period to object to abatement time
An ALJ approved a settlement five days after it was mailed to the employee union and before a fully executed agreement had reached him. The Commission found that the approval violated the rule requiring at least ten days for an employee representative with party status to consider a settlement. The…
Stone Container Corporation
Repeated crane manbasket violation affirmed
Stone Container used cranes to lift employees in personnel baskets under a prior settlement that required a full-cycle test lift carrying twice the intended load before employees were raised. Crane operators testified that the required weighted tests were not performed on several occasions and that…
Paschen Contractors, Inc.
Gantry-crane citation vacated because lifting device was not a crane
Paschen built a device to lift concrete bridge segments weighing more than 200 tons during construction of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. The device collapsed on its first use and injured four employees, after which OSHA cited Paschen for willfully failing to load test what it characterized as a…
Falcon Steel Company, Inc.
Economic-infeasibility interlocutory review withdrawn
Falcon Steel sought interlocutory review after the ALJ denied discovery supporting an industry-wide economic-infeasibility defense to perimeter safety-net citations. The Commission initially granted review and partially stayed the hearing on the 29 C.F.R. § 1926.105(a) items. Four days later, both…
R & R Builders, Inc.
Motion to sever GFCI item denied for lack of good cause
The Secretary asked the Commission to sever and finalize an affirmed ground-fault-circuit-interrupter item so it could support future repeated citations and encourage compliance at other worksites. The Commission held that Federal Rule 54(b) is intended to permit immediate appeals and is not the…
Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company
Boiler asbestos case settled for $1,500
CEI employees removing boiler skin casing disturbed asbestos-containing insulation without a negative-pressure enclosure, exposure monitoring, required respirators and clothing controls, or warning signs. An ALJ affirmed six serious asbestos items with penalties totaling $2,100 and one…
Covington Roofing & Sheet Metal Company
Defaulted citation vacated by agreement
An ALJ had dismissed Covington Roofing's notice of contest after the company failed to answer the Secretary's complaint or respond to a show-cause order. That default order affirmed one serious citation item and assessed the proposed penalty. During Commission review, the Secretary and employer…
Shank-Ohbayashi
One tunnel docket severed, leaving $600 in penalties
Shank-Ohbayashi faced citations from two inspections of its Los Angeles Metro-Rail tunneling project. The cases were tried together, but Commission review was sought only for Docket 88-2674. The Commission severed Docket 88-1711 after finding no party or public interest that warranted further…
Sauer-Sundstrand Corporation
Settlement order corrected for withdrawn citation item
Sauer-Sundstrand and the Secretary settled the contested OSHA citations, and an ALJ approved their agreement. The ALJ's order affirmed Citation 1 as amended, assessed $1,880, and stated without qualification that Citation 2 was affirmed. The settlement, however, withdrew Item 8 of Citation 2 and…
Sauer-Sundstrand Corporation
Settlement order corrected to reflect amended citation
Sauer-Sundstrand and the Secretary settled the contested OSHA citations, and an ALJ approved their agreement. The ALJ's order assessed a $520 penalty for Citation 1 but stated without qualification that Citation 2 was affirmed. The employer sought relief because the settlement withdrew three items…
Crocker & West Sheet Metal Co., Inc.
Citation withdrawn after default ruling
Crocker & West Sheet Metal failed to answer an ALJ's order in its OSHA contest. The ALJ dismissed the notice of contest by default, affirmed a citation under the personal protective equipment standard, and assessed a $490 penalty. After the case was directed for Commission review, the Secretary…
Louisiana-Pacific Corporation
Particleboard hazard communication items vacated
OSHA cited Louisiana-Pacific's Montana particleboard plant for three alleged violations of the Hazard Communication Standard and proposed $1,000. The items concerned formaldehyde warnings on particleboard shipping labels, warnings on stationary formaldehyde tanks, and safety data sheets for…
Lexcon Building Systems
Inspection item withdrawn, floor-opening vacatur final
Lexcon served as construction manager for a mall project and was responsible for coordinating subcontractors and conducting safety inspections. OSHA cited the company over the frequency of its inspections, an unprotected LP-gas cylinder, and two unguarded floor openings. The LP-gas item was…
Fred C. Kroeger & Sons
Scaffold access item affirmed for $100
Fred C. Kroeger & Sons was a bricklaying subcontractor at a church construction site. OSHA cited the company because employees climbed scaffold braces without an access ladder and because a scaffold allegedly lacked required guardrails and toeboards. The ALJ affirmed the access item, reduced its…
Century Steel Erectors, Inc.
Court remand required proof that safety belts were practical
Century Steel employees were dismantling a bridge-work scaffold when an employee fell about 40 feet while tack welds were being cut. An ALJ found a serious fall-protection violation because employees were not tied off and assessed $1,000 for that item. The D.C. Circuit reversed, holding that the…
Williams Enterprises, Inc.
Perimeter cable violation reinstated for $630
Williams Enterprises performed structural steel erection on a Washington, D.C., building project. Employees came within one foot of two unguarded edges on a mostly decked second-tier floor, with fall distances of 20 to 30 feet. The ALJ vacated the perimeter-cable citation after concluding that…
John Morrell & Co., Sioux Falls Plant, and its successors
Ergonomics settlement approved for $990,000
John Morrell, OSHA, and the workers' union settled two cases involving the company's Sioux Falls meatpacking plant. The settlement set a $990,000 penalty for the ergonomics citation and required a separate $260,000 grant to NIOSH for continued study of musculoskeletal injuries. Morrell agreed to…
Westinghouse Haztec, Inc.
Spill-response site-control citation settled for no penalty
Westinghouse Haztec provided environmental cleanup services after a train derailment released more than 50,000 gallons of xylene. OSHA cited the company because its site-control program lacked a site map and clearly marked work zones once the operation had moved into post-emergency cleanup. The ALJ…
Mark Ciullo Construction Co., Inc.
Default penalties reduced to $575 by settlement
Mark Ciullo Construction did not answer the Secretary's complaint after contesting serious and nonserious construction citations. An ALJ dismissed the contest by default, affirmed the citations, and assessed $1,500. The parties later settled. The Secretary withdrew Item 1 of Citation 1 and cut the…
Mikel Company, Inc.
Grounding item settled for $1 after mixed plant ruling
Mikel Company manufactured furniture at a Bronx plant where OSHA cited flammable-liquid storage, spray-finishing, hazard communication, posting, and injury-recordkeeping conditions. The ALJ affirmed several storage-room and spray-booth ventilation items with $375 in penalties, vacated several…
East Penn Manufacturing Company
Overtime rule changed, but citation vacated for fair notice
East Penn voluntarily removed a pregnant employee from lead exposure and initially continued both her base wages and expected overtime. After the Commission ruled in an earlier case that lead medical-removal benefits did not include overtime, East Penn stopped the overtime payments. The Commission…
ASARCO, Inc.
Lead medical-removal benefits include lost overtime
ASARCO transferred employees from lead-exposed jobs after blood tests showed excessive lead levels. The company maintained regular pay but did not pay overtime the employees would have earned in their normal positions. An ALJ vacated OSHA's citation under then-existing Commission precedent. The…
Pace Construction Corporation
Hoist door item reclassified, runway item affirmed for $100
Pace was the general contractor for an 18-story building and extended a personnel hoist to the roof so workers could carry tools and materials safely. At the roof landing, the company used a single 2-by-4 gate about 3.5 feet high instead of the required 6.5-foot hoistway door, and the short runway…
Zunker Contractors, Inc.
Commission impasse leaves $1,000 trench ruling in place
Zunker was installing sewer pipe in an approximately 11-foot-deep trench when a side collapsed, burying and seriously injuring an employee. The ALJ credited rescue personnel, city employees, and the Secretary's soil expert, finding that the trench was nearly vertical, dug in unstable soil, and…
St. Joe Resources Company
Lead benefits violation affirmed, Commission divided on back pay
St. Joe transferred a zinc-smelter employee with an elevated blood lead level to a lower-exposure job. The company maintained his base hourly rate but did not pay scheduled overtime, shift differentials, or voluntary overtime he would have had an opportunity to work as a weighman. Following a Fifth…
Schuylkill Metals Corporation
Voluntary lead removals required full earnings
Schuylkill operated a secondary lead smelter and transferred employees with rising blood lead levels from production work to lower-exposure janitorial duties. The company maintained their regular hourly rates but did not pay the overtime and production bonuses they would have earned in production…
Collier-Keyworth Company
Noise appeal settled with one item affirmed and no penalty
Collier-Keyworth manufactured office-chair mechanisms using power presses and lathes at a Massachusetts plant. OSHA cited the company under the occupational noise standard for employee protection, engineering or administrative controls, and a hearing conservation program. The litigation produced…
Amax Lead Company of Missouri
Lead removal violation reclassified as serious for $60
Amax transferred six employees away from high lead exposure and continued their regular hourly rates for 40-hour weeks. The employees lost opportunities for overtime and no longer had paid lunch periods, although their total daily paid hours remained unchanged. Following a Fifth Circuit ruling, the…
Connecticut Light & Power Company
Electrical hazard citation vacated after unforeseeable crew error
A Connecticut Light & Power crew was replacing substation equipment when a lead electrician contacted a 23,000-volt lightning arrestor and was fatally injured. OSHA alleged that the utility's training and supervision were inadequate under the general duty clause. The Commission found that the…
Union Oil Company of California
Refinery explosion penalties reduced to $10,000 after appeal
A pressure vessel failed at Union Oil's Chicago refinery, causing an explosion and fire that killed 17 employees and caused lost-worktime injuries to 14 others. OSHA cited pressure-vessel inspection and repair practices, protective equipment for employees performing firefighting duties, fire…
Capform, Inc.
Excavation inspection and crane-load items affirmed for $800
Capform performed concrete formwork in a 25- to 30-foot-deep excavation at a Dallas construction site. After repeated rain, an unshored excavation wall collapsed while a 100-ton crane was operating above it, killing one Capform employee and injuring another. The ALJ vacated the citation under the…
Van Buren-Madawaska Corporation
Logging employer status remanded for factfinding
OSHA issued 21 citations involving twelve northern Maine logging worksites, including woods operations, labor camps, and a maintenance garage. Van Buren-Madawaska accepted that the cited conditions would violate the Act if it was the workers' employer, but argued that contracted logging operators…
Hern Iron Works, Inc.
150-day hearing delay reversed and case remanded
At the start of a scheduled hearing, Hern Iron Works obtained a 150-day postponement while related warrant litigation was pending in the Ninth Circuit. The Commission reversed because the motion was untimely, showed no exigent circumstances, and would indefinitely delay a case that the parties…
Whiting-Turner Contracting Company
Floor-edge violation reclassified as serious for $50
Whiting-Turner managed construction of two four-story hospital towers where floor perimeters were unguarded or protected only by sagging single-wire ropes. Its three onsite employees performed engineering inspections and regularly worked near those edges. The ALJ found a violation but classified it…
Seward Motor Freight, Inc.
Forklift-platform violation reduced from willful to serious
Seward repaired semi-trailers using a work platform welded to forklift forks. Employees commonly raised the platform themselves and climbed the forklift mast to reach it instead of having an operator remain at the controls. One employee fell about seven feet while climbing down and sustained…
Lowe Construction Company
Trench ladder citation vacated under specific egress standard
Lowe employees used a ladder to climb the vertical lower portion of a deep trench, then stepped off and walked up the sloped wall. OSHA cited the general construction ladder rule because the ladder ended 6 to 8 feet below ground level instead of extending three feet above the landing. The…
Cardinal Industries, Inc.
One modular-plant fall item affirmed for $450
Cardinal manufactured modular housing units on an indoor assembly line. After a fatal fall from a unit roof, OSHA cited fall hazards on the roofs, an adjacent felt-rack platform, and a scissors lift. The Sixth Circuit first held that the plant was governed by general industry rather than…
Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company
Fall protection required during elevated apprentice training
Cleveland Electric trained apprentice mechanics to cross narrow substation bridges at heights of 25, 36, and 56 feet. The company removed guide ropes in stages and eventually required trainees to cross without fall protection so the exercise would simulate field conditions and build confidence. The…
Continental Electric Company
Hearing conservation citation reinstated with no penalty
Continental used a pneumatic air file that produced sound levels as high as 103 decibels. A full-shift dosimeter showed the operator's exposure slightly exceeded a 92-decibel eight-hour average, but the company had no hearing conservation program. The ALJ vacated the citation because the Secretary…
Dun-Par Engineered Form Company
Serious fall protection violation affirmed after court remand
Dun-Par was a concrete-form subcontractor whose employees worked at unguarded floor edges 38 to 46 feet above the ground. Guardrails and safety belts were infeasible for the work, but the Eighth Circuit required Dun-Par to prove that other protective measures were unavailable. On remand, the…
Gilian Instrument Corporation
Settlement approved with a $350 penalty
Gilian Instrument agreed to settle after an earlier default order had affirmed the citations and assessed $700. The company agreed to guard the cited equipment appropriately or remove it from service. The Secretary reduced the proposed penalty from $700 to $350, and Gilian withdrew its notice of…
Frito-Lay, Inc.
One tripping-hazard item remains after citation withdrawal
OSHA cited Frito-Lay over flexible electrical cords used with portable conveyors. The Secretary withdrew Citation 1, which had alleged a willful electrical violation, and the Commission set aside the judge's rulings on that citation. The judge's disposition of Citation 2 became the final order. One…
General Dynamics Land Systems Division, Inc.
Freon confined-space case remanded for fact-finding
General Dynamics employees entered confined spaces where trichlorotrifluoroethane, known as freon, could cause poisoning or asphyxiation. An earlier decision vacated the general duty clause citation because an exposure-limit standard addressed the chemical. The D.C. Circuit held that the standard…
Lee Roy Westbrook Construction Company, Inc.
Shaft-opening citation affirmed with a $50 penalty
Westbrook employees pulled lumber through openings in an elevator shaft while exposed to a 13-foot fall onto a debris-covered concrete floor. The general contractor was contractually responsible for safety facilities, but Westbrook's employees had the carpentry skills and materials needed to cover…
Lee Roy Westbrook Construction Company
Floor-opening citation affirmed with a reduced penalty
Westbrook was a concrete-framing subcontractor whose employees used a ladder beside an uncovered elevator shaft opening. A fall through the opening would have been about 40 feet. Westbrook argued that the general contractor was contractually responsible for covering the opening, but the Commission…
Brand Scaffold Services, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA's citation was received by Brand Scaffold Services on June 6, 1988, but the company did not submit its notice of contest until late September. The judge dismissed the contest because it was not filed within the statutory 15-working-day period and affirmed the serious citation. Brand later…
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.