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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Cargill, Inc., Nutrena Feed Division
One grain-dust item vacated and one remanded
OSHA brought two general duty clause allegations at Cargill's grain elevator and feed mill. One concerned secondary grain-dust fires and explosions in enclosed conveyor legs without explosion-relief venting. The Commission found that hazard recognized but affirmed vacation because Cargill proved…
Snyder Well Servicing, Inc.
Respirator item affirmed and other well-site items vacated
Snyder used a mobile service rig to swab a newly drilled Texas oil well, removing material from the well bore. The Commission held that swabbing had not been shown to be construction work, so construction standards did not apply. It nevertheless affirmed a serious general-industry respiratory…
Delta Field Erection, Inc.
Temporary-lighting citation vacated for lack of knowledge
Delta Field employees repaired trays inside a Tenneco ethyl-benzene storage tower using portable lights installed and controlled by Tenneco. A Tenneco employee mistakenly opened a natural gas line, an explosion followed, and 13 workers died, although the record did not establish that the lighting…
John T. Brady & Co., Inc.
Entrance-canopy general duty citation vacated
OSHA alleged that John T. Brady should have installed canopies over entrances to protect workers from objects falling from crane loads and upper building levels. The Commission held that the general duty clause was unavailable because specific construction provisions addressed crane loads…
P & Z Company, Inc.
Commission withdraws review of fact-bound citation dispute
OSHA alleged that P & Z Company violated requirements for covered garbage containers, clearing scrap lumber, and lighting work areas, with two allegations classified as willful. The case returned to the Commission after an earlier remand required the judge to make specific factual findings and…
United Cotton Goods, Inc.
Fabric-knife guarding amendment allowed
United Cotton Goods employees used electric knives to cut stacks of fabric. OSHA originally alleged that employees should wear metal-mesh gloves under the personal protective equipment standard, then moved 13 days before the hearing to add an alternative point-of-operation guarding charge. The…
Better Baked Foods, Inc.
Notice-of-contest dismissal set aside
A chief administrative law judge dismissed Better Baked Foods' notice of contest after the company failed to prove it had posted the notice and did not respond to a show-cause order. The company's general manager later said a mail clerk had signed for the order but management never saw it, and he…
S. Zara & Sons Contracting Co.
Fatal excavation violation found willful
A Zara employee was killed when an inadequately protected, approximately seventeen-foot-deep manhole excavation collapsed and a broken water main flooded it. Zara had extensive sewer-construction experience, trained supervisors, several prior trenching citations, and repeated warnings, yet its rule…
American Can Company
Noise standard upheld and cases remanded
OSHA alleged that American Can exposed employees to excessive noise without feasible engineering or administrative controls and, in one case, without an effective hearing conservation program. American Can argued that the federal noise standard was invalid because OSHA did not adopt scope and…
Edward Kelly & Sons, Inc.
Layered-soil trench citation vacated
Edward Kelly & Sons sloped the upper seven feet of soft soil in a twelve-foot trench but left the bottom five feet of hard, compact clay vertical. The Commission read the soft-soil trenching rule together with the rule for hard or compact soil. Because the trench wall had distinct layers and the…
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc.
Spray-room item remanded and eyewash item vacated
OSHA cited DuPont for conducting pump spray-painting without a spray booth or spray room and for allegedly lacking suitable emergency eye-flushing facilities where corrosive liquids were handled. The Commission ruled that the spray-painting item required more evidence on whether the pump shop…
Allis-Chalmers Corporation
Spray-booth ignition-source item vacated
Allis-Chalmers used a gasoline-powered forklift to move engines and generators into and out of a spray booth. OSHA alleged that the forklift was prohibited spark-producing equipment in or near a spraying area. The Commission found that OSHA had not proved dangerous quantities of flammable vapors or…
TRG Drilling Corporation (Mid-Continent Division)
Citation vacated for untimely complaint
The Secretary filed his complaint thirty-nine days late, did not seek an extension, did not explain the delay, and did not respond to TRG Drilling's motion to dismiss. The judge treated this unexplained procedural noncompliance as grounds to vacate the citation and dismiss the complaint. The…
Mahone Grain Corporation
Respirator-program violation reclassified as serious
Employees cleaning a long-unused grain elevator worked in thick dust with too few respirators, shared and improperly maintained equipment, and no respiratory protection program. Five employees later became ill, several requiring hospitalization, and the Commission concluded they had contracted…
Daniel Construction Co., Boise Cascade Project
Scaffold-access item affirmed; electrical items split
The Commission reviewed five items from a paper-mill construction project. It vacated an exposed-wire item because the Secretary did not prove Daniel knew or should have known the wire was energized, affirmed vacation of a hoist-inspection item and an electrical-booth access item, and found a…
BASF Wyandotte Corporation
Pentane-backflow general duty citation vacated
Pentane twice backed into nitrogen piping at BASF's chemical plant after a manual valve was left open. OSHA cited BASF under the general duty clause for lacking posted operating and emergency instructions and check valves or another backflow safeguard. Although BASF recognized pentane's fire and…
Ladish Company
Fatal wheelabrator guarding violation affirmed
A wheelabrator helper was fatally crushed between a descending loader arm and a conveyor while working from a platform behind the loader. Employees regularly used that platform to free stuck forgings, could not hear the loader in the noisy area, and were outside the operator's view. The Commission…
Lone Star Steel Company
Toxic-exposure citations remain vacated without review
The judge vacated citations alleging excessive coal tar pitch volatile exposure and storage or consumption of food in areas exposed to toxic materials. Neither party sought Commission review, so the majority affirmed the judge's decision without reviewing it and gave it only the precedential value…
Witco Chemical Corp.
Citation 2 remanded for further proceedings
The parties settled citation 1, and the judge approved that agreement; it became a final Commission order and was not before the Commission on review. Because the settlement did not address citation 2, the Commission remanded the case to the administrative law judge for further proceedings on that…
E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Company
Settlement and withdrawal approved
The Commission approved the parties' stipulation of settlement and notice of withdrawal. The brief order does not identify the underlying citations, standards, penalties, or specific settlement terms.
General Dynamics Corporation, Electric Boat Division
PPE-use issue remanded for hearing
The judge vacated a personal protective equipment item after concluding that the standard's use requirement was invalid and imposed no duty to provide equipment. Intervening Commission precedent rejected the invalidity theory, so the Commission reversed. Because the Secretary abandoned the…
P & A Construction Company, Inc.
Late contest reinstated for excusable neglect
P & A's attorney dictated a timely notice of contest, but a temporary secretary inadvertently merged the dictation into another matter and incorrectly said it had been mailed. Counsel promptly filed after discovering the mistake. Applying Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), the Commission found…
Vicon Corporation
Fatal rebar fall citation amended and affirmed
Vicon employees tied reinforcing steel from a narrow plank roughly forty-five to fifty feet above a concrete floor without tied-off safety belts; one employee fell to his death. The Commission held that the reinforcing-steel standard was more specifically applicable than the general…
Air-Kare Corporation
Aircraft spray-room violations affirmed
Air-Kare spray-painted aircraft in a curtained section of a hangar near non-explosion-proof electrical equipment and beneath a ceiling with exposed wood framing. The Commission credited the compliance officer's observations and opinion that dangerous quantities of flammable vapors were present near…
General Electric Company
Turbine-shell guardrail items vacated
Employees sat on narrow joints of cast turbine-shell halves more than seven feet above the floor while drilling and grinding. OSHA cited General Electric for failing to install platform guardrails. The Commission held that an eighteen-to-twenty-four-inch ledge on a manufactured turbine shell was…
Kus-Tum Builders, Inc.
Fatal truss-bracing violation found willful
Kus-Tum erected about forty-five large wooden roof trusses without adequate diagonal bracing. The general contractor and several workers warned company leadership that the trusses were unstable, but workers were told to resume work or go home and additional bracing was deferred. The trusses…
Lukens Steel Company
Willful molten-steel PPE violation affirmed
Several tons of molten steel erupted from an ingot, seriously burning four pouring-platform employees and killing two. Lukens required and enforced incomplete protective-equipment practices: employees working near molten steel lacked face shields, leggings, and adequate gloves, sometimes wore…
National Industrial Constructors, Inc.
Power-plant construction violations resolved
The Commission reviewed numerous fall-protection, trenching, machine, electrical, scaffold, ladder, fire-extinguisher, and equipment-alarm items from construction of a Nebraska power plant. It rejected dismissal for delayed citation issuance because the employer did not prove prejudice. It held…
Pittsburgh Forging Company
Dockets severed and one judge decision affirmed
The Commission severed dockets 78-1361 and 78-2041. It affirmed the administrative law judge's decision in docket 78-2041 and gave that ruling the precedential value of an unreviewed judge's decision. Docket 78-1361 remained under Commission review. The short order does not identify the underlying…
Mel Jarvis Construction Co.
Scaffold lifeline violation held non-willful
Two employees died when their suspended scaffold and its rooftop supports fell 105 feet. Their safety belts were tied to the scaffold's hoisting mechanism, so they fell with the entire system. The Commission held that lifelines had to be independent of every part of the scaffold and supporting…
St. Joe Minerals Corporation, d/b/a St. Joe Lead Company - Smelting Division
Elevator violation penalty set after court remand
A judge had found a willful general duty clause violation because St. Joe bypassed electrical safety devices on a freight elevator and assessed $10,000. The Eighth Circuit reduced the classification to serious and remanded only for a new penalty. Based on the lengthy bypass, high probability of…
Howard Barthelmass Painting Co., Inc.
Power-line electrocution citation vacated
A painter was fatally electrocuted when his aluminum paint-roller extension contacted a 7,200-volt line near a roof parapet. OSHA cited the employer for failing to identify and warn about the circuit before work began. The cited construction electrical rule, however, applied only to electrical…
Branciforte Builders, Inc.
Late contest remanded for Rule 60(b) evidence
Branciforte Builders missed the fifteen-working-day deadline to contest citations carrying $17,085 in proposed penalties. The Commission agreed that no timely contest had been filed and that OSHA had not caused the delay. It nevertheless overruled precedent that treated the finality provision as an…
J. I. Hass Company, Inc.
Late-contest facts remanded after court ruling
The Third Circuit reversed the Commission's prior late-contest ruling and required further findings. On remand, the Commission sent the case back to the administrative law judge to determine the facts surrounding delivery and receipt of the citations and penalty notices and to decide whether J. I…
Eddy's Bakeries Company
Indoor fueling explosion hazard affirmed
Eddy's Bakeries refueled delivery trucks inside a warehouse near open-flame wall heaters. After unattended fueling spilled several gallons of gasoline, vapors ignited and an explosion destroyed the facility. The Commission held that ignition of gasoline vapors near an open flame was a recognized…
United Geophysical Corporation
Drowning PPE citation affirmed
A head linesman drowned while attempting to swim a seventy-yard gravel pit pulling seismic cable without a life jacket. The Commission found that geophysical exploration had not been shown to be construction work, so the construction water-safety standard did not apply. It nevertheless held that…
Union Railroad Company
Locomotive repair-pit violation affirmed
Employees worked beside and crossed two locomotive repair pits that were partly or completely open for substantial periods without covers or guardrails. The Commission rejected suppression of pre-Barlow's inspection evidence and held that a Federal Railroad Administration policy statement did not…
Merritt Electric Company, Inc.
Late contest accepted and fall citation affirmed
Merritt promptly called OSHA to protest a citation, but the area director did not clearly explain that an informal conference would not substitute for a written contest. The Commission treated the later written contest as valid because the company's confusion was reasonably attributable to OSHA's…
S.J. Groves & Sons Company
On remand from the Second Circuit, the Commission vacates the citation
S.J. Groves & Sons Company had contested an OSHA citation that the Commission earlier decided against it. The company appealed, and in May 1981 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the Commission and sent the case back with instructions to enter an order vacating the citation…
S. J. Groves & Sons Company
Citation vacated after court remand
The Second Circuit reversed the Commission's earlier decision and remanded with instructions to vacate the citation. Treating the appellate ruling as the law of the case, the Commission entered the required order. The brief order does not identify the underlying standard, penalty, or merits…
RSR Corporation
Ambiguous citation disposition remanded
A judge's order had become final without Commission review but was ambiguous about the disposition of four citation items. The Commission found sufficient reason under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(6) to grant relief from the final order and remanded for any necessary proceedings and a…
Auto Sun Products Co.
Plating protections affirmed and press items vacated
Auto Sun employees handled parts over acid and cyanide tanks without chemical goggles or face shields, and the closely spaced tanks lacked dikes or another means to prevent dangerous intermixing after a rupture. The Commission affirmed both plating-operation violations without penalties. It vacated…
Avalotis Painting Company
Unguarded scaffold citation affirmed
Employees sandblasted from the unguarded top level of a scaffold inside a reheating duct. The Commission held that Avalotis affected interstate commerce because it used out-of-state products, and that employees had access to a 17-foot fall hazard at the scaffold's open end, especially while using…
O'Boyle Tank Lines, Inc.
Construction-site truck violations affirmed
O'Boyle delivered and unloaded cement at construction sites using tractor-trailers with an unguarded cycloblower pulley and, in one instance, backed a vehicle with an obstructed rear view without an alarm or signaler. The Commission held that delivery and unloading were integral to construction and…
American Cyanamid Company
Settlement approval affirmed after court remand
A judge approved a settlement representing that the cited conditions had been abated. The Commission initially remanded so the judge could consider the union's objection that abatement had not occurred, but the Third Circuit reversed that remand as inconsistent with circuit precedent. Bound by the…
Todd Shipyards Corporation
Incorrect respirator item reinstated
Employees performing carbon-arc gouging inside a ship were exposed to roughly twice the permissible concentration of iron oxide fumes. The ventilation arrangement was ineffective, and the dust-and-mist respirators they wore were not approved for fumes. The judge affirmed the overexposure and…
Johns-Manville Corporation
Asbestos removal PPE violation affirmed
Johns-Manville employees removed asbestos insulation from hot gas ducts without Type C supplied-air respirators and special clothing. The judge had required proof that asbestos exposure exceeded the standard's numerical limits. Applying intervening precedent, the Commission held that all employees…
Joseph J. Stolar Construction Company, Inc.
Serious trenching violation affirmed
Joseph J. Stolar Construction was installing underground pipe when a trench wall collapsed and fatally buried one employee. A 25-foot segment contained a significant band of wet, pumpy soil, but employees worked in the trench without shoring and without sloping from the bottom. The Commission held…
Prestressed Systems, Inc.
Consolidated cases severed and one citation affirmed
Prestressed Systems contested citations from two worksites, and the cases were consolidated for hearing. The judge affirmed a housekeeping citation under section 1926.25(a) in Docket No. 76-4276 and vacated a protective-equipment citation in the other case. Only the protective-equipment ruling was…
Triangle Tanning Co.
Evidence from pre-Barlow's inspection was not excluded
Triangle Tanning asked the judge to quash an OSHA inspection warrant and suppress the evidence gathered at its manufacturing facility. The inspection occurred two months before the Supreme Court decided that the OSH Act could not authorize nonconsensual warrantless inspections. The Commission held…
Houston Systems Manufacturing Company, Inc.
Crane clearance citation vacated for employee misconduct
Houston Systems Manufacturing was cited after a crane operated within 10 feet of an electrical power line. The judge found that the company had a rule matching the required clearance, communicated the rule to employees, and effectively enforced it. The Commission agreed that the violation resulted…
Western Massachusetts Electric Co.
Electrical line reenergization violation affirmed
Western Massachusetts Electric removed protective tags and grounds from a 13,800-volt line before all workers were known to be clear. A communication failure and other errors led to premature reenergization, causing an explosion that fatally injured a contractor's employee and exposed utility…
Federated Metals, Inc.
Citation dismissals set aside for obstructed discovery
Federated Metals contested citations involving employee exposure to lead, copper, and noise, along with related respiratory protection and lead-control requirements. The judge dismissed the cases when the Secretary declined to present evidence at the scheduled hearing. The Commission found that…
Ed Cheff d/b/a Ed Cheff Logging
Seatbelt requirement for logging tractors affirmed
Ed Cheff Logging used crawler tractors with rollover protective structures but did not provide or require seatbelts. Tractor operators faced rollover risks on steep terrain as well as risks from branches and debris entering the cab. The Commission held that the general personal protective equipment…
Transamerica Delaval, Inc.
Late-contest dismissal reversed for a mailing-date hearing
Transamerica Delaval received amended citations and had 15 working days to file a notice of contest. Its notice was dated on the deadline but carried a postmark four days later. The judge treated the postmark as controlling and dismissed the contest as untimely. The Commission held that a postmark…
Consolidated Rail Corporation
Bridge fall-protection violation affirmed
Consolidated Rail employees replaced railroad ties on a bridge 34 feet above a busy roadway. Removing groups of ties left large openings, but the employees had no equipment protecting them from a fall. The Commission held that a Federal Railroad Administration policy statement did not displace OSHA…
Puget Sound Tug & Barge; Mission Viking, Inc.; Northwestern Construction, Inc.
Maritime citations affirmed despite Coast Guard authority
Three maritime employers argued that Coast Guard authority displaced OSHA requirements for work on vessels and barges. The cited conditions included respiratory and flotation protection, crane and deck hazards, recordkeeping, unguarded rigging, unsecured propane tanks, and unsafe passage between…
American Cyanamid Company
General duty citation over sterilization policy vacated
American Cyanamid excluded women ages 16 through 50 from production jobs involving lead unless they had been surgically sterilized. OSHA alleged that this policy was a willful general duty clause violation and proposed a $10,000 penalty. The Commission majority held that the policy was a condition…
West Point Pepperell, Inc.
Employee medical records ordered produced with privacy safeguards
West Point Pepperell contested serious respiratory and cotton-dust citations at its textile mill. During discovery, the Secretary sought employee medical surveillance records and mill-level profit and loss statements. The Commission found the medical records relevant to respiratory protection…
Consolidated Freightways
Vacated tractor-seat citation could not be revived
Consolidated Freightways was cited over inadequately padded steel bars on tractor seats that employees said caused injuries on rough roads. The Secretary moved to vacate the citation, and the judge granted that request. After employees objected, the Secretary sought to reopen the case and amend it…
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.