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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Alfred S. Austin Construction Company
Crane-riding violation reduced to de minimis
Alfred S. Austin Construction used a crane-suspended material box to move two employees to a high-rise hoist where they installed cross-braces. The Commission held that the box and tools were a load and that moving employees while they were on that load violated the crane standard. It also…
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
Forklift and safety-shoe penalties stand
Goodyear used a forklift to move and stack large tires at a warehouse and distribution facility. The judge found that tire loads beyond the truck's rated capacity were handled and that operators lacked enough information about load centers and tire weights to stay within the rating. He also found…
Zipco Construction Corp.
Guardrail and fire-extinguisher items affirmed
Zipco was building three two-story townhouses in Yonkers, New York. An employee carried lumber near an unguarded open-sided floor eight feet above the ground without fall protection, and the townhouses lacked the required fire extinguishers. Fire-protection equipment was available elsewhere at or…
John R. Davies & Son
Trench-shoring violation affirmed with reduced penalty
John R. Davies & Son installed underground utility lines in an eight-foot-deep trench containing soft, loose, sandy material. The trench uprights were spaced about eight feet apart instead of the six-foot maximum required by the cited timbering table, and one employee was exposed in the trench. The…
Van Raalte Company, Inc.
Sewing-machine belt item affirmed as de minimis
Van Raalte manufactured women's lingerie using about 25 straight-needle sewing machines with unguarded vertical drive belts. The Commission held that the belt-guarding standard applied to those machines and that it could not invalidate the standard by deciding that guarding was unnecessary. The…
Underhill Construction Corp., individually, and DIC Concrete Corp., individually and trading as DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Open-floor, saw, and ladder violations affirmed
DIC-Underhill performed structural concrete work on a high-rise building and garage complex. About 15 employees worked and moved within four feet of an unguarded second-floor perimeter approximately 13 feet above the ground. The Commission held that this showed actual exposure and that employee…
A. C. Gonzalez Painting Contractors, Inc.
Ninth-floor lifeline violation affirmed
A. C. Gonzalez Painting Contractors had two employees painting from a two-point suspension scaffold at the ninth floor of a motel. Neither employee wore a safety belt attached to a lifeline, and no belts or lifelines were available at the scaffold. The Commission held that the lifeline requirement…
Concrete Construction Corporation
Dump-truck safety violations affirmed
Concrete Construction used a dump truck whose raised body lacked a permanently attached positive support and whose dumping controls lacked a latch against accidental operation. An employee was fatally injured when he was pinned between the dump body and the truck frame. The Commission held that the…
A. J. McNulty & Co., Inc.
Steel-erection fall violations affirmed
A. J. McNulty was a steel-construction subcontractor on a multistory building project. Three employees worked near the fourth-floor edge without safety belts, lanyards, or nets, and one employee welded while leaning or straddling the edge 40 to 50 feet above the ground. The Commission found that…
Slyter Chair, Inc.
Two machine-guarding violations affirmed
Slyter Chair manufactured wood and upholstered furniture at a plant in Tacoma, Washington. OSHA cited the company because sewing-machine needles and wood-shaper cutting heads were not adequately guarded, and because a drum of lacquer thinner was kept near spray-finishing operations. The Commission…
Love Box Company
First-aid violation affirmed
Love Box manufactured corrugated boxes and employed about 151 workers. The Commission held that the company needed a person trained in first aid on its second shift because the nearest hospital was about nine minutes away, and it assessed a $25 penalty. It vacated an aisle-obstruction item because…
Cormier Well Service
Oil-rig fall-hazard violation affirmed
Cormier Well Service allowed an employee who was learning derrick work to stand without a safety belt or lifeline on an oil-rig platform about 55 feet above the derrick floor. An equipment failure dislodged a 100-pound iron ball that struck the employee, causing him to fall to his death. The…
American Bag Co., Inc.
Failure-to-abate penalties reduced
American Bag was a 17-employee leather bag manufacturer in Puerto Rico. After the company did not contest an initial citation, OSHA reinspected and alleged that multiple violations had not been corrected, that the citation had not been posted, and that an injury log had not been maintained. The…
Franklin R. Lacy
Citation vacated for lack of commerce proof
Franklin R. Lacy owned and managed an apartment building in Kirkland, Washington, and directly hired workers to construct an additional building. OSHA issued eight nonserious citation items and proposed $220 in penalties. The Commission adopted the judge's ruling that the Secretary had not proved…
Nugent Service, Inc.
Heavy-lifting citation vacated
Nugent Service supplied workers for a freight-transfer dock. OSHA alleged that the company required employees to lift objects weighing more than 132 pounds, lacked enough material-handling equipment, and failed to train employees in safe lifting methods. The Commission held that the Secretary had…
W. N. Couch Construction Company
Trench-protection violations affirmed
W. N. Couch Construction had employees working in an 11-foot-deep trench whose wall included at least 4 1/2 feet of unstable backfill. The trench was also next to backfilled excavations, a heavily traveled road, and an operating backhoe, but the company used no shoring, bracing, or other cave-in…
Ricardo Correa, Jr., d/b/a Ricardo's Mexican Enterprises of Omaha
Masa-feeder failure-to-abate penalties vacated
Ricardo's Mexican Enterprises produced Mexican food in Omaha, Nebraska. OSHA initially cited conditions involving a masa feeder after a young employee was fatally injured while cleaning the machine, and the uncontested citation became final. In the later failure-to-abate case, the Commission found…
Signode Corporation
Steel-strapping rewinder guarding violation affirmed
Signode used lines of machines to rewind steel strapping onto reels weighing about 100 pounds. Each machine had an unguarded wheel with six rotating paddles, and employees moved among operating machines while changing reels. The Commission held that the paddles presented a hazard because they could…
Hammet Company, Inc.
Trenching citations vacated
Hammet excavated a trench with two sections, each more than five feet deep. OSHA initially cited the soft-or-unstable-soil trenching rule, but on review conceded that the soil was hard and compact and sought to substitute the hard-soil rule. The Commission held that the record did not prove either…
Empire-Detroit Steel Division, Detroit Steel Corporation
Coke-oven exposure item vacated
Empire-Detroit operated a steel mill in New Boston, Ohio. OSHA alleged that a coke-oven lid man was exposed to excessive coal tar pitch volatiles and that feasible engineering controls were not used. Although the exposure limit was exceeded, the Commission affirmed vacation of that item because the…
Warnel Corporation
Safety-belt violation affirmed after amendment
Two Warnel employees installed window frames at the edge of a third floor about 30 feet above the ground. They had to move outside the existing guardrail to perform the work, but they used no safety belts or other fall protection. The Commission held that a safety belt was not the structural…
DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Perimeter-guarding and housekeeping violations affirmed
DIC-Underhill performed structural concrete work on a New York City apartment building. The first and second floor edges were unguarded, with drops greater than six feet, and employees worked on both levels. The Commission held that the general perimeter-guarding standard applied to concrete…
Lidstrom, Inc.
Crane power-line clearance violation affirmed
Lidstrom leased a crane and its operator to another company for moving concrete pipe near energized power lines. The crane came within ten feet of the lines, and an employee of the lessee who was attaching the hook to pipe was electrocuted. The Commission held that Lidstrom remained the crane…
Graven Brothers and Company
Excavation violations reclassified as nonserious
Graven Brothers excavated a seven-foot-deep pit in sandy clay without adequate shoring, bracing, or sloping. A spoil pile about five feet high was within two feet of one wall, and a 9,000-pound truck operated next to another wall without added support. The Commission found that an employee in the…
Harold Christiansen and Harold W. Christiansen, d/b/a Palmer Christiansen Company
Ungrounded power-tool violation affirmed
Palmer Christiansen performed sheet-metal work at a Salt Lake City construction site. OSHA found a portable electric drill and chipping hammer in the company's gang box with their grounding prongs broken or cut off. The tools were available for employees to use in installing ductwork, although the…
Bechtel Power Corporation
Construction-manager safety violations affirmed
Bechtel managed construction of a Missouri power plant but did not perform craft labor. Its engineers, timekeepers, safety representatives, and other employees regularly worked throughout the construction site. The Commission held that this management and inspection work was directly tied to…
Star Circle Wall Systems, Inc.
Three site-hazard items affirmed, four vacated
Star Circle Wall Systems worked on a New York City construction project where debris obstructed work areas and stairways and materials were dropped more than 20 feet without an enclosed chute. The judge found that the company's employees worked throughout the buildings and were exposed to those…
Chief Freight Lines, Inc.
Safety-shoe requirement affirmed
Chief Freight Lines operated a Tulsa terminal where about 80 dock employees handled freight ranging from light boxes to 350-pound drums, pipe, vehicle parts, and oil-field equipment. Freight sometimes fell from stacks, carts, or trailers, and several employees had suffered foot or toe injuries. The…
Crane Company
Lead and silica exposure items affirmed
Crane Company manufactured valves and plumbing fixtures at a Tennessee foundry. Sampling showed employees were exposed to lead and silica dust above permissible limits, and the judge found that feasible industry technology existed to control those exposures. The company also lacked written…
Stowe Canoe Company
Twenty-one safety items affirmed
Stowe Canoe operated a small Vermont canoe-manufacturing facility. OSHA cited 22 conditions involving machine guarding, eye protection, flammable-liquid handling, fire extinguishers, compressed air, electrical equipment, aisle marking, and injury-record posting. The judge affirmed the first 21…
The Singer Company-Furniture Division
Polyester-line noise violations affirmed as nonserious
Singer operated a furniture plant in Toccoa, Georgia, with a polyester fill line added after an earlier plant-wide noise citation. One operator worked about six hours near equipment producing a 94 dBA sound level and was not using hearing protection. The judge found that feasible changes could…
Advance Specialty Company, Inc.
Cyanide-gas and guarding violations affirmed
Advance Specialty fabricated wire parts at a worksite shared with Platers and Coaters, an affiliated plating operation under common ownership and management. An employee of each company died when an inexperienced worker mixed acid salts with sodium cyanide and produced hydrogen cyanide gas. The…
Apex Glass & Sash, Inc., d/b/a Acme Glass Company
Radial-saw guarding violation affirmed
Acme Glass used a 12-inch radial arm saw to cut aluminum window-framing tubing. The upper half of the blade was covered, but up to six inches of the lower blade remained exposed while operators stood in front of the blade and held tubing about six inches away. The Commission held that the normal…
Sweetman Construction Company
Scraper seat-belt violation affirmed
A scraper operator was killed after two earth-moving vehicles collided, which prompted OSHA to inspect Sweetman Construction's highway project. The record did not establish whether that employee had been wearing a seat belt before the accident, so no violation was found from the fatal incident…
Jones Oregon Stevedoring Company
Crosscut-saw guarding violation affirmed
Jones Oregon Stevedoring kept a circular crosscut table saw in its Coos Bay gear locker without the required blade hood. The company admitted the saw was not guarded but argued that the woodworking standard was invalid because OSHA omitted a headnote from the underlying ANSI material. The…
The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co., Inc.
Meatcutter mesh-glove citation vacated
A&P did not require retail meatcutters to wear wire-mesh gloves on the noncutting hand while boning beef and veal. The cited personal-protective-equipment standard did not specifically mention mesh gloves or retail meat boning. Evidence showed that such gloves were rarely used in the industry and…
Matson Terminals, Inc.
Longshoring footwear citation vacated
Matson employees lashed cargo containers aboard the SS MATSONIA. OSHA observed two lashing employees wearing tennis or canvas shoes and cited Matson under the general personal-protective-equipment standard. The Commission held that the specific longshoring footwear standard controlled instead. That…
Collator Corporation
Press-brake subitems vacated and remaining citation affirmed
Collator Corporation manufactured collating machines at a Seattle plant. Its notice of contest referred only to the proposed penalties, but its answer and statements at the hearing showed that it also intended to contest two press-brake guarding subitems. The Commission therefore treated those…
Reynolds Metals Company
Noise-control citation vacated for lack of feasible controls
Reynolds Metals operated a can-manufacturing plant where employees worked near six production lines containing 126 pieces of equipment. OSHA's spot measurements showed noise levels from 92 to 105 dBA, and the Commission found that the excessive noise continued during the employees' exposure…
K & T Steel Corporation
Machine-guarding citation affirmed for three unguarded machines
K & T Steel fabricated structural steel, reinforcing bar, and tanks. OSHA cited the company because an ironworker, hydraulic press brake, and plate rolling machine lacked point-of-operation guards. K & T admitted the ironworker violation but contested the other two machines. The Commission held…
Lloyd C. Lockrem, Inc.
Mobile-equipment trench item revived and remanded
Lloyd C. Lockrem installed an underground concrete sewer line in a ground cavity that qualified as a trench. A front-end loader backfilled the cavity with its front wheels as close as 1.5 feet from the edge, and no stop logs or barricades were installed. The judge vacated the cited excavation…
Electrical Contractor Associates, Inc.
Shaft and roof-edge guarding citations affirmed
Electrical Contractor Associates was an electrical subcontractor at a building project in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Its employees worked near a mechanical shaft that lacked toeboards and was partly unguarded, and near an unguarded roof edge 48 feet above the ground. The judge affirmed two nonserious…
Okland Construction Company
Fall-protection citation affirmed for work on wall forms
Okland employees assembled wall forms for concrete placement at a power-station project. One employee died after falling 15 to 18 feet while installing a horizontal 2-by-4 waler without wearing a safety belt. Although no direct evidence established where he stood when he fell, the judge inferred…
Haybuster Manufacturing Company
Failure-to-abate ruling affirmed after court remand
Haybuster did not contest an initial citation, which became a final order requiring abatement. OSHA reinspected before the 15-working-day contest period expired and found four conditions uncorrected. A judge found failures to abate but reduced three of the four proposed additional penalties. The…
Dobson Brothers Construction Co.
Repeated spoil-pile violation affirmed and penalty reduced
Dobson Brothers laid pipe in a trench in Lincoln, Nebraska. OSHA alleged that the trench lacked adequate support in soft or unstable soil and that excavated material was stored within two feet of the trench edge. The Commission agreed with the judge that OSHA's expert evidence did not prove the…
W. J. Barney Corporation
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the W. J. Barney Corporation case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The attached judge's decision concerned a construction manager whose employees regularly inspected and traversed a construction site. The judge found the company subject to…
Walsh Construction Company
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Walsh Construction Company case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace conditions, judge's disposition, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent argues that…
Fischbach & Moore, Incorporated
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Fischbach & Moore case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The attached judge's decision involved an employee welding from outside a scaffold 18 feet above ground without a safety belt or lifeline, and welding zinc-bearing material without…
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company; Thorofare Markets, Inc.
Mesh-glove citations vacated
A&P and Thorofare Markets employed retail-store butchers who trimmed and boned meat, poultry, and fish without required wire-mesh gloves. The judge affirmed citations under the general personal-protective-equipment standard. Applying its Grand Union decision, the Commission held that the general…
Abbott-Sommer, Inc.
Roofing citations mostly affirmed without merits review
Abbott-Sommer was a roofing subcontractor working on a flat roof in Totowa, New Jersey. The judge vacated an item alleging inadequate potable water but affirmed items involving head protection during slag hoisting, an enclosed debris chute, perimeter guarding, and fall-protection equipment for an…
Mohawk Excavating, Inc.; Desarrollos Metropolitanos, Inc.; Texaco, Inc.
Review directions vacated
The Commission vacated directions for review in three cases involving Mohawk Excavating, Desarrollos Metropolitanos, and Texaco. It held that Commissioner Moran's directions did not grant the respondents' petitions for discretionary review and were the type rejected in Francisco Tower Service…
Southwest Filter Company; Bethlehem Steel Corporation; Borders Electric Company, Inc.; Grand Union Company; Henry Carlson Company
Review directions vacated
The Commission vacated directions for review in five cases involving Southwest Filter Company, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Borders Electric Company, Grand Union Company, and Henry Carlson Company. It referred to Francisco Tower Service and did not identify the underlying standards, workplace…
Raymond J. Pitts, Inc.; Millstone Erectors
Review directions vacated
The Commission vacated directions for review in cases involving Raymond J. Pitts and Millstone Erectors. It held that the directions failed to specify the issues for review and were contrary to the Administrative Procedure Act's intent and Commission policy. The official release does not identify…
L.G. Barcus & Sons, Incorporated
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the L.G. Barcus & Sons case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, judge's disposition, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent argues that canceling…
Joseph Ambrozaitis
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Joseph Ambrozaitis case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, judge's disposition, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent argues that canceling…
J.R. Simplot Co., d/b/a Simplot Soilbuilders
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the J.R. Simplot case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent states that the judge had vacated the contested…
Seattle Stevedore Company
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Seattle Stevedore Company case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, judge's disposition, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent argues that…
Kawneer Company, Inc.
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Kawneer Company case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent states that the judge had vacated the contested…
Everett Stevedoring Company
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Everett Stevedoring Company case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The official release does not identify the underlying standards, workplace facts, judge's disposition, or proposed penalties. Commissioner Moran's dissent argues that…
Texas Window Cleaning Company
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the Texas Window Cleaning Company case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The attached judge's decision involved two experienced employees who cleaned fifth- and sixth-floor hospital windows while standing on a 20-inch ledge without safety…
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.