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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Consumers Power Company
Electrical citation vacated because tree trimming was maintenance work
Consumers Power assigned tree trimmers in an insulated bucket truck to prune branches near a deenergized 41.6-kilovolt line. OSHA alleged that the company failed to tag, test, and ground the line and allowed an employee to work within the clearance required when a line must be treated as energized…
Vappi & Company, Inc.
Repeated classifications stand after an evenly divided Commission
Vappi & Company was a building contractor cited for three violations classified as repeated. Before the inspection, Vappi had received one final citation under each of the same standards at other worksites, based on substantially similar facts. The three Commissioners disagreed about whether one…
L. C. Anderson & Sons, Inc.
Serious fall-protection violation affirmed under the proper standard
Two L. C. Anderson employees tightened bolts while sitting on a horizontal I-beam about 20 feet above the ground without safety belts, lifelines, or similar protection. The Commission upheld the personal protective equipment violation because fall protection was feasible, the employer knew belts…
Aluminum Coil Anodizing Corp.
Multi-item citation upheld in part after inspection challenge failed
OSHA inspected Aluminum Coil Anodizing's Illinois plant after receiving a complaint from someone who was not an employee or employee representative. The Commission held that the complaint's source and purpose did not invalidate the inspection because OSHA also had broad general authority to inspect…
S. Puma Co., Inc.
Flat-roof perimeter guarding citation vacated
The judge affirmed a citation alleging that S. Puma failed to install perimeter guarding on a flat roof. The Commission applied its prior holding in Central City Roofing that the cited open-sided floor standard did not apply to flat roofs. It therefore vacated the citation and associated penalty.
Zwicker Electric Co., Inc.
Guardrail case remanded for employee-access and multiemployer defenses
Two Zwicker Electric employees spent two to three minutes on the fifth floor of a building under construction to determine whether it was ready and safe for later electrical work. Part of the floor perimeter was unguarded, but testimony conflicted over whether the employees were 3 feet or 25 feet…
King Arthur Inc.
Commission lets stand the vacatur of an unauthorized failure-to-abate notice
This case is about the order of operations OSHA must follow before it can penalize an employer for failing to fix a hazard. King Arthur Inc. had contested an earlier citation involving a power press (in a related docket, 76-1895) by writing to the area director within the 15-day window. Instead of…
Riverview Steel Erectors, Inc.
Steel-erection perimeter citation affirmed under a substituted standard
A Riverview Steel Erectors employee swept snow about one foot from the unguarded edge of a temporary metal-decked third floor, 22 feet above the ground. The judge found that the general open-sided floor rule did not apply because the work was still part of steel erection. He amended the charge to…
W. G. Cornell Co. of Washington, Inc.
Scaffold guardrail and access violations affirmed under substituted standards
W. G. Cornell employees used a roughly 40-foot tubular scaffold erected by the general contractor. Three upper platforms lacked guardrails, and employees climbed the scaffold's cross-braces because no adequate access ladder was provided. The judge held that the concrete-construction standard…
Alliance Enclosures, Inc.
Machine-guarding decision affirmed without substantive Commission review
OSHA cited Alliance Enclosures for missing guards on a radial arm saw, a power brake, a power shear, and four power presses. The judge found that the saw had an adjustable travel stop and vacated that part of the first citation, but affirmed the missing blade guard and the point-of-operation…
Busy Beaver Building Centers, Inc.
Floor-load citations vacated for freestanding storage platforms
OSHA cited Busy Beaver for a repeated failure to post approved floor-load limits on a storage platform and later proposed an additional $1,000 penalty for failing to correct a similar condition on another platform. The judge found that both platforms were freestanding storage structures inside…
Martin E. Keller Roofing Co., Inc.
Flat-roof fall-protection citation vacated
Three Martin E. Keller Roofing employees worked near the edge of a flat roof about 17 feet above the ground, beside a parapet measured at 14 to 18 inches. The judge found that perimeter guardrails would obstruct the roofing and flashing work at the edge. He also accepted unrebutted testimony that…
Max J. Kuney, Inc.
Backhoe hazard citation affirmed with reduced penalty
A Max J. Kuney laborer and backhoe operator were using both a shovel and the backhoe bucket to locate a water line in a shallow trench. The judge found that the moving bucket came within 1 to 2 feet of the laborer, exposing him for about 15 minutes to a recognized struck-by hazard that could cause…
Derr Construction Company
Safety-belt citation affirmed, five other steel-erection items vacated
Derr Construction was erecting a high-rise steel frame when an ironworker worked on the top edge of a girder on the 13th floor without using an available safety belt. The Commission upheld the serious personal protective equipment violation because the worker faced an obvious fall hazard and the…
Aero Engineering Co.
Respirator procedure citation affirmed with a $60 penalty
OSHA cited Aero Engineering for failing to prepare written procedures for the safe use of gas-mask and cartridge respirators during hydrochloric acid emergencies and normal operations. The company initially appeared to settle, later indicated that it wished to contest the case, and then did not…
George Hyman Construction Company
Six repeated classifications stand after a divided Commission
George Hyman admitted six construction violations involving material storage, electrical grounding, temporary-light guards, ladder clearance, floor-edge guarding, and crane operation. Each standard had been cited previously at another nearby Hyman worksite, and those earlier citations had become…
William Phillips Company
Commission declines to disturb an ALJ fall-protection ruling
William Phillips Company is a small seasonal contractor doing tuckpointing, caulking, and building waterproofing. During a December 1975 inspection at a Cleveland shopping center, an OSHA compliance officer found one of the company's employees kneeling on a parapet about 30 feet above a concrete…
Command Trucking & Warehouse Corp.
Failure-to-abate penalties reduced from $1,960 to $300
A reinspection found that Command Trucking had not timely corrected four previously final conditions involving a locked exit, a floor hole, an ungrounded portable battery charger, and an inadequately guarded compressor drive. The judge rejected the company's claim that Customs Service rules…
Beth Israel Medical Center Hospital
Garbage odor and vermin citations vacated for lack of proof
OSHA cited Beth Israel Medical Center after a complaint that odors, insects, rodents, and vermin from a temporary garbage shed affected employees in nearby offices. During the inspection, the compliance officer detected only a slight deodorizer-like odor near a window and did not consider it…
Siegel-Scola-Trento Dyers, Inc.
Interlocked guards required for revolving feather-drying drums
Siegel-Scola-Trento used four slowly rotating mesh drums to dry feathers. The drums lacked enclosures interlocked with the drive mechanism, and an employee stopped them by using a stick to force an overhead belt off its pulley while the equipment was moving. The company speculated that compliant…
The Lane Construction Corporation
Safety-belt violation affirmed, net and guardrail items vacated
Two Lane Construction employees stood and leaned over a bridge parapet more than 25 feet above a lower deck while attaching scaffold members to a mobile stripping wagon without personal fall protection. The judge affirmed the personal protective equipment violation because safety belts were…
Munro Waterproofings, Inc.
Serious floor-opening violation affirmed at a high-rise worksite
Munro Waterproofings employees worked on the 40th floor of a high-rise where a 12-to-15-inch-wide opening surrounded a climbing tower. The judge found that employees could use a stairway that required them to step across the unguarded opening. Although the general contractor was contractually…
James Mellon, d/b/a Huntington Metal Window Service
Floor-opening and hard-hat violations affirmed
Huntington Metal Window Service employees installing windows used a second-floor stairway beside a large opening with incomplete guarding and a 12-foot drop. The judge found that the subcontractor could have covered enough of the opening to protect its workers without creating the union conflict it…
The Bucket Elevator Company
Flammable-liquid and welding penalties reduced to $200 total
The Bucket Elevator Company accepted serious citations involving flammable-liquid transfer near ignition sources and inadequate screening of a welding area, but contested the two proposed $600 penalties. The fire hazard involved vapors that could ignite near welding, while unshielded arc rays could…
H. W. Ivey Construction Co., Inc.
Scaffold and tower violations affirmed, other fall items vacated
H. W. Ivey was constructing a four-level parking garage with scaffolds at three corners and an approximately 40-foot elevator and stair tower. The judge affirmed serious violations for missing or improperly installed scaffold cross-bracing, missing scaffold guardrails and toeboards, and an…
United States Steel Corporation
Crane resistor citation narrowed to normal production and light-changing operations
U.S. Steel operated overhead cranes with uncovered resistor banks on bridge walkways used by maintenance employees. The Commission held that troubleshooting a crane while it was out of production and controlled by the maintenance worker was not a normal operating condition, so the cited rule did…
Fisk-Oesco Joint Venture
Three electrical and ladder items vacated, one plug-cover item affirmed without penalty
Fisk-Oesco Joint Venture was an electrical contractor installing circuits during construction of a hospital. OSHA cited a cracked welder receptacle with an exposed prong, a welder cable resting on a catwalk, a pipe-bender plug missing its wire-termination cover, and ladder rails that did not extend…
Bernard S. Costello, Inc.
Longshoring citations affirmed after the employer withdrew its contest
Bernard S. Costello, Inc. operated as a contract stevedore and terminal operator. OSHA cited the company after employees worked near unguarded open weather-deck hatches and handled cargo without protective hats. The judge found that the open hatches exposed two employees to a possible 17-foot fall…
Cedar Construction Company
Two willful trench violations merged into one with a $4,750 penalty
Cedar Construction Company excavated trenches and installed utility sewer pipe for the City of Lincoln, Nebraska. Two employees were working in a 14-to-15-foot-deep trench when part of a wall collapsed, fatally injuring one employee. The Commission found that the trench had water and unstable soil…
Suburban Concrete Corporation
Floor-hole and open-side items affirmed, concrete-work charge vacated
Suburban Concrete Corporation had an employee correcting work on the second floor of a construction site after the area had been turned over to the general contractor. OSHA cited an uncovered floor hole and loose cables along open sides of the floor, both within several feet of the employee's work…
Craig D. Lawrenz & Associates, Inc.
Three trenching violations and $330 penalty affirmed
Craig D. Lawrenz & Associates installed water and sewer systems and was inspected at two trenching locations along a Wisconsin highway. The judge found that excavated material was not set back or retained from a water-pipe trench, the sides of that trench were inadequately supported or sloped in…
Interstruct Corporation, a Division of International Basic Economy Corporation
Crane-record failure to abate affirmed, saw-guard charge dismissed
Interstruct Corporation manufactured prestressed and post-stressed concrete products in Puerto Rico. OSHA alleged that the company had not abated earlier violations involving a hand-fed ripsaw guard, truck-crane inspection records, and overhead-crane inspections. The judge dismissed the saw-guard…
Baroid Division of NL Industries, Inc.
Diesel-tank citation vacated for lack of proof and control
Baroid supplied drilling fluid and technical assistance at an oil-well site operated by another company. OSHA cited Baroid because a 10,000-gallon portable diesel tank near the drilling platform was not surrounded by grading, curbing, or diking. The judge found that OSHA had not reliably proved the…
Zwicker Electric Company
Building-opening and stairway charges vacated for lack of employee access
Zwicker Electric Company was an electrical subcontractor working in two 20-story buildings at a Brooklyn construction project. OSHA cited unguarded lobby door and window openings beside deep exterior ditches and two stairways without railings. The Commission found that OSHA's inspector gave…
MacMillan Industries, Inc.
Thermatron machine-guarding citation affirmed with a reduced penalty
MacMillan Industries fabricated canvas and plastic products and used a two-operator Thermatron machine to seal plastic with heat and pressure. OSHA measured a three-quarter-inch opening between the machine's descending bar and bottom plate, twice the three-eighth-inch opening indicated on the…
Therrel-Kizer, Inc.
Flat-roof perimeter-guarding citation vacated
Therrel-Kizer was cited for failing to install perimeter guarding on a flat roof. The administrative law judge affirmed the citation under the open-sided-floor standard. The Commission applied its intervening decision holding that the cited standard did not apply to flat roofs. It therefore vacated…
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…
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.