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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Allied Structural Steel Company
Crane swing-radius citation vacated by an equally divided Commission
Allied Structural Steel used a truck-mounted crane while shaking out steel beams at a power-station project. The crane's outriggers were fully extended and an oiler had been assigned to act as a flagman, but no physical barrier enclosed the rear swing radius. OSHA cited the company for failing to…
Toler Excavating Company
Serious trench violation and $700 penalty affirmed
Toler Excavating installed sewer pipe in an unstable trench that was roughly nine to 12 feet deep and was not adequately shored, sloped, braced, or otherwise protected. Excavated material was stored close to one edge and a backhoe operated along the other, adding stress to the trench walls. A…
Omni-Metal Castings, Inc.
Foundry air-contaminant, ventilation, and liquid-storage citations vacated
OSHA cited Omni-Metal Castings for excessive coal-tar-pitch volatiles, inadequate exhaust at a grinding wheel, and excessive storage of flammable or combustible liquids. The judge rejected the air-sampling laboratory reports as insufficiently reliable without testimony from the analysts and found…
A.I. Smith Electrical Contractors, Inc.
Contest dismissed after failure to answer
OSHA cited A.I. Smith Electrical Contractors for open-sided-floor and hoistway-entrance violations and proposed a $250 penalty. The company timely contested but did not answer the Secretary's complaint. It also did not respond to the judge's order to explain the missing answer, so the judge…
Olin Construction Company, Inc.
Serious unshored-trench citation affirmed by divided Commission
Olin Construction was locating an underground electrical cable while installing a water main. An OSHA inspector saw two employees in a narrow, vertical-sided trench dug in unstable fill soil and estimated from a folding rule that the trench was about six feet deep. The company disputed the depth…
Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company
Crane and personnel-box general-duty citations vacated
OSHA issued two serious general-duty citations to Sun Shipbuilding, each with a proposed $700 penalty. The first alleged that accessible crane swing-radius areas were not barricaded or otherwise protected, but the judge found that signalmen protected the areas and that the evidence did not…
Anchor Hocking Corporation
Glass-plant noise-control citation vacated by divided Commission
Anchor Hocking's glass-forming employees worked around noise levels of 98 to 103 dBA and used personal hearing protection. OSHA alleged that the company also had to implement feasible engineering or administrative controls. Evidence showed that enclosed operator booths could reduce exposure during…
Shaw Construction Company
Two serious trench citations and $350 in penalties affirmed
Shaw Construction excavated a trench about five feet wide, 20 feet long, and nine feet deep for utility cables. Excavated material was piled within two feet of the edge, increasing the load on the trench wall and creating a risk that debris could fall onto employees. The trench sides were…
Acchione & Canuso, Inc.
Citations dismissed after investigation found no employee exposure
OSHA issued one serious and one nonserious citation to Acchione & Canuso. After further investigation, the Secretary determined that the company's employees had not been exposed to the alleged hazard. The Secretary moved to dismiss both citations. The judge granted the motion. On review, the…
Trojan Steel Company
Oxygen-storage and punch-press items vacated by divided Commission
Trojan Steel contested two nonserious citation items, each carrying a proposed $50 penalty. One item alleged that a bulk oxygen tank was too close to a fire-resistant building wall under a 25-foot separation rule. The judge held that rule ineffective because its private consensus source had been…
Continental Steel Corporation
Noise penalties modified, four violations affirmed
Continental Steel received four citations involving excessive noise, nonmandatory hearing protection, failure to lock out power during lubrication, and inadequate ventilation around an acid tank. The company stipulated that noise exceeded permitted levels and that some employees did not use hearing…
Merit Construction Company
Serious skylight-opening violation and $500 penalty affirmed
Merit Construction was replacing skylight panels when three employees traversed rows of unprotected skylights. Although the workers had been warned not to step on the panels, one worker stepped through an old skylight, fell between 16 and 28 feet, struck a rack, and then hit the concrete floor…
Murray Company, Inc.
Exit citation affirmed and penalties modified
Murray Company operated a hardware store in a basement and four-story building with one open wooden stairway connecting the floors. The judge found that the stairway did not provide sufficient emergency egress, affirmed the exit citation, reduced its penalty from $65 to $60, and extended the…
Midwest By Products, Inc.
First-aid and LP-gas items reinstated, ladder item vacated
OSHA cited hazards at Midwest By Products' rendering plant, including unguarded screw conveyors, defective ladders, inadequate first-aid preparation, an unsafe grinder, electrical defects, and an unprotected propane tank. The company admitted most of the nonserious violations and later acknowledged…
A. L. Amaral Company
Trench citations affirmed and serious penalty reduced
A. L. Amaral employees built a catchbasin in an excavation more than six feet deep with unstable fill soil, nearly vertical sides, no shoring, and no ladder. The judge treated the catchbasin excavation as part of a trench even though it was wider than it was deep. He affirmed a serious…
Terry Brothers
Radial-saw failure-to-abate penalty reduced to $250
Terry Brothers installed fences and wooden guards on two radial saws after OSHA cited inadequate lower-blade guarding. The added devices did not automatically adjust to the stock or cover the blade after a cut, so they did not satisfy the standard. The judge nevertheless found that the company had…
Stoughton Body, Inc.
Serious fire hazards affirmed and warehouse item vacated
Stoughton Body faced one four-part serious citation and thirteen nonserious items involving compressed-gas and gasoline storage, welding fumes and screens, work platforms, spray painting, electrical equipment, housekeeping, exits, and firefighting equipment. The Commission held that the company…
Metro-Mechanical, Inc.
Scaffold and housekeeping citations affirmed
An OSHA compliance officer saw a worker on a mobile scaffold that lacked guardrails and positive-locking casters. Metro-Mechanical did not deny the scaffold conditions, but disputed whether the worker was its employee. The Commission held that the officer could rely on the job foreman's…
Water Tunnel Contractors
Misfired-hole violation and $800 penalty affirmed
Water Tunnel Contractors washed explosives from at least two misfired holes instead of placing new primers and refiring them. When drilling resumed, an explosion killed one employee and injured three others. The judge held that the standard generally required refiring and that the company bore the…
Olin Corporation
Forklift guard citation affirmed and crane-clearance item vacated
Olin operated unguarded forklifts around pallets, fiber cores, and scrap coil ends stacked above driver height. The Commission held that the overhead-guard standard protects against falling objects representative of the work and does not depend on whether objects are stacked above the forklift…
C.E.C. Electrical Company
Fall-protection and electrical citations affirmed
C.E.C. Electrical employees worked around untagged deenergized circuits, exposed live parts, unprotected cables, and unsecured switchboxes. Another employee lay on a 24-inch-wide walkway suspended about 70 feet above the floor and leaned out to weld without guardrails, a safety belt, or a lifeline…
Pittston Stevedoring Corporation; and International Terminal Operating Co., Inc.
Hard-hat citations affirmed without penalties
Inspectors found large numbers of longshore workers without required protective headwear aboard several ships operated by Pittston and International Terminal Operating. The companies had supplied hard hats, posted notices, held safety meetings, and urged voluntary compliance, but had not removed…
Railroad Salvage of Connecticut, Inc.
Failure-to-abate items affirmed and penalties reduced
Railroad Salvage did not contest an original citation covering blocked egress, poorly identified and mounted fire extinguishers, and hazardous material stacking, so those violations became final. A reinspection found that some cited locations remained uncorrected. The judge affirmed four…
Sheesley and Winters Construction Company
Excavation citation and $500 penalty vacated
Sheesley and Winters installed sewer pipe in a ground opening about 13 feet deep, 14 feet wide at the top, and 7 feet wide at the bottom. One wall was nearly vertical and the other was partly sloped, but inspectors observed no cracking, sloughing, or soil movement. The judge found that the company…
Bertke Electric Company, Inc.
Temporary-wiring citation and $35 penalty affirmed
Bertke Electric supported energized temporary branch-circuit wiring with pieces of insulated wire attached to I-beams and allowed other wiring to contact metal ductwork. The company argued that the National Electrical Code's permanent-wiring support rules did not apply to temporary wiring. The…
Kaywood Construction Company
Six final violations affirmed with $200 penalty
OSHA cited Kaywood Construction for posting and recordkeeping failures, a sagging perimeter rope, short ladder rails, and employees working without fall protection. The company's notice of contest challenged only the proposed penalties. The judge nevertheless reviewed the merits, vacated five…
Bob McCaslin Steel Erection Company
Related companies treated as one employer
Workers at an airport construction site were exposed to debris with protruding nails, unguarded floor holes, and unguarded elevated platforms. They were nominally employed by Bob McCaslin Anchor Company, while OSHA cited Bob McCaslin Steel Erection Company. The judge treated the two corporations as…
Dravo Corporation
Settlement approved and crane item withdrawn
Dravo Corporation and the Secretary submitted a settlement agreement under which Dravo withdrew its notice of contest and the Secretary withdrew a nonserious crane item and its proposed $55 penalty for lack of supporting evidence. The judge approved the settlement and assessed $655 but did not…
United Engineers & Constructors, Inc.
Repeat rebar violation affirmed and two items vacated
At the Three Mile Island construction site, one employee stood untied on a crane girder about 225 feet above the floor while guiding another crane. Safety nets would have blocked the lift, and the Commission divided over whether a feasible safety-belt anchorage had been proved, leaving the…
Deering Milliken, Inc.; Alan B. Sibley Mill
Catwalk citation affirmed without penalty
A 20-foot catwalk about nine feet above a concrete floor had a rail on one side but no guardrail on the other. Pipes located up to two and one-half feet from the open edge left gaps through which an employee could fall, so they were not equivalent protection. The Commission affirmed the violation…
GTE Automatic Electric, Inc.
Emergency-wash item affirmed and drill-press item vacated
GTE Automatic Electric was cited for an employee handling materials near acid baths without eye protection, emergency showers and eye washes located 50 to 75 feet from plating tanks, paint residue in spray booths, and unguarded drill presses. The judge affirmed the eye-protection and emergency-wash…
Jamison Bedding, Inc.
Cotton-dust citations vacated
Air samples from Jamison Bedding's bale-opening and willow operations measured total dust well above the one-milligram limit for raw cotton dust. The judge vacated the exposure and control citations because the samples also contained vegetation, burlap, and other process dust, and the laboratory…
Colorado Fuel & Iron Steel Corp., a/k/a C.F. & I. Steel Corp.
Mixed steel-mill citations affirmed and vacated
OSHA issued 48 nonserious items at Colorado Fuel & Iron's Pueblo steel mill involving cranes, respirators, sanitation, welding, electrical equipment, access, housekeeping, and fall hazards. The judge affirmed many admitted or proved items, vacated others for insufficient proof or inapplicable…
C & H Erection Company, Inc.
Delayed citation-posting violation affirmed
C & H Erection received an OSHA citation on a Thursday but did not post it at the jobsite until the following Tuesday, after a compliance officer arrived for reinspection. The judge interpreted the requirement to post immediately as requiring diligent action with reasonable dispatch under the…
Tyler Refrigeration Division of Clark Equipment Company, Inc.
Employee notice required before dismissal
The Secretary moved to dismiss one citation item and its proposed $110 penalty after reinvestigation showed that Tyler Refrigeration had been in compliance. The judge granted the motion, but neither the motion nor the decision had been served on the union or posted for affected employees. The…
Dallas Hotel Company
Serious scaffold violation and $600 penalty affirmed
Dallas Hotel employees worked on narrow scaffold platforms 20 to 60 feet above the ground. The rear of the platforms lacked guardrails and toeboards, and cross braces were too far away to prevent a fall. One employee also worked above another, creating a falling-object hazard. The Commission…
B.F. Goodrich Company
Noise settlement approved and abatement extension motion denied
The settlement vacated a chemical-exposure item and its $80 penalty for lack of evidence, while affirming an occupational-noise item with a $60 penalty and a staged abatement plan. B.F. Goodrich later asked for two years after the Commission's final order to complete the cure-men abatement work…
Anchorage Plastering Company
Scaffold citations vacated for lack of commerce proof
OSHA cited alleged scaffold, hard-hat, and flammable-liquid violations while Anchorage Plastering employees applied stucco at an Alaska medical-center project. The judge did not reach the safety merits. He held that the Secretary failed to prove that the small plastering business affected…
Cox Brothers, Incorporated
Power-line and fall violations affirmed
A Cox Brothers foreman stood atop a 14-foot masonry wall without a safety belt or scaffold while inserting 13-foot reinforcing bars beneath an overhead power line. A bar contacted the line, and the foreman fell and died. The judge held that the company failed to inspect for the plainly visible…
Ames Crane & Rental Service, Inc.
Power-line clearance violation and $600 penalty affirmed
Ames Crane rented a crane with its own operator for work at an Iowa State University power plant. The crane operated between a doorway and energized transmission lines less than 10 feet away, and the load line became energized, killing another contractor's employee. Ames had given only general…
Continental Oil Company (Southern Facilities Terminal)
Tank-terminal fire citations vacated
A gasoline storage tank overflowed at Continental Oil's Chattanooga terminal, followed by a fire and explosion that killed the terminal manager and two employees at a neighboring facility. OSHA issued six citations involving drainage, diking, fire control, and the general duty clause. The…
Hammonds Construction, Inc.
Energized-line violation affirmed and penalty reduced
Hammonds Construction had a cold-line contract requiring power lines to be deenergized before work. Although the owner instructed the foreman to turn off all lines, the foreman sent two employees aloft above an energized 7,200-volt tap. A deenergized wire contacted the live line, killing one…
Buckley & Company, Inc.
Citations vacated after complaint deadline expired
A federal appeals court reversed the Commission's earlier dismissal of Buckley & Company's notice of contest. Because the Secretary had not filed a complaint after the case returned, the Commission gave the Secretary 20 days from receipt of its order to do so. The official release notes that no…
Feazell Construction Co.
Serious excavation citation and $700 penalty affirmed
Feazell Construction employees worked in an excavation about 14 feet deep with barely sloped, unsupported walls in backfill soil. Standing water, visible sloughing, and rain-washed spoil showed a moving-ground hazard. Excavated material was also stored within two feet of the edge, and the access…
Armor Elevator Company, Inc.
Elevator-shaft fall citation and $80 penalty affirmed
An Armor Elevator foreman worked on a four-by-eight-foot platform at the roof level of a 12-story elevator shaft. Openings on both sides were large enough for him to fall through, but he chose not to use an available safety belt because he believed it would restrict movement. The judge found that a…
Cedar Construction Co.
Repeated spoil-pile violation and $1,275 penalty affirmed
Cedar Construction piled a seven-foot spoil bank, including clods weighing up to 20 pounds, directly at the edge of a 12.8-foot-deep trench where employees worked. The company had a prior final citation for the same spoil-placement standard at another Nebraska worksite, and the Lincoln foreman knew…
American Airlines, Inc.
Repeat and failure-to-abate settlement approved
American Airlines and the Secretary settled a repeated foot-hazard citation and a related failure-to-abate notice after the company represented that it had corrected the conditions. The judge approved only the failure-to-abate portion because the repeated citation had not been forwarded into the…
General Bronze Architectural Products
Serious fall citation affirmed and penalty reduced
A General Bronze employee welded at the fifth-floor perimeter without a safety belt while a foreman was close enough to observe him. The Commission held that the pre-amendment personal-protective-equipment standard was enforceable here because the employee faced a fall of more than 25 feet and…
Federal Glass Co.
Employee notice required for noise settlement
Federal Glass withdrew its contest after the Secretary agreed to extend the abatement date for a workplace-noise citation from July 1974 to December 1975. The Commission treated the linked motions as a settlement because the company received a material benefit from the extended deadline. The unions…
The Federal Glass Company
Employee notice required for noise settlement
Federal Glass withdrew its contest after the Secretary agreed to extend the abatement date for a workplace-noise citation from July 1974 to December 1975. The Commission treated the linked motions as a settlement because the company received a material benefit from the extended deadline. The unions…
Garcia Concrete, Inc.
Unqualified-loader violation affirmed and penalty reduced
A 17-year-old laborer who had only driven a front-end loader in the company yard was directed by a crew lead to move it about two miles on public roads. The company president had stopped the worker's equipment training and instructed him not to operate the loader, but had not told crew leaders…
Layton Roofing Company, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail citation and $300 penalty affirmed
Layton Roofing employees worked on a flat concrete roof more than 16 feet above the ground without perimeter guardrails. An employee had fallen from the roof and died the day before OSHA's inspection. The judge held that the open-sided-floor standard did not apply to flat roofs, but the Commission…
Edward M. Ream, Inc.
Flat-roof fall citation vacated
Employees installed roofing on a flat, solid-surfaced roof more than 100 feet above the ground without perimeter railings, nets, or personal fall protection. An employee had previously fallen from the roof and died. The judge held that the cited safety-net and personal-protective-equipment…
Norrwock Shoe Company, Div. of SCOA Industries, Inc.
Citation dismissed for lack of evidence
The Secretary moved to dismiss the citation and complaint for lack of evidence, and the judge granted the motion. On review, the Commission asked whether affected employees had received notice. The company then certified that it posted the dismissal motion, the judge's order, and the direction for…
Hanovia Lamp Division, Canrad Precision Industries, Inc.
High-voltage general-duty citation vacated
On remand from the Third Circuit, the Commission considered whether Hanovia should have required two-person teams for high-voltage laboratory testing. The Secretary's expert said many major companies used that practice, but the evidence also showed that laboratories varied their approach depending…
Sierra Permaneer
Settlement approved after union service completed
The parties settled a 27-item nonserious citation through penalty reductions, extended abatement dates, amendment of one cited standard, vacation of items 4, 14, and 23, and withdrawal of the company's contest to the remaining disputed items. Review initially focused on whether posting alone…
Canton Elevator & Manufacturing Co.
Settlement and $150 penalty affirmed
Canton Elevator contested only the proposed penalties. The Secretary agreed to reduce two $100 penalties to $50 each, producing a total settlement penalty of $150, and the company withdrew its contest. The Commission affirmed the settlement under precedent holding that workplace posting gave…
C & R Cabinet Company
Failure-to-abate and posting penalties assessed
A follow-up inspection found six unabated machine-guarding violations involving ripsaws, radial saws, sanders, and a conveyor. C & R Cabinet had corrected seven other items and had ordered some missing guard parts, so the judge reduced the proposed $1,675 failure-to-abate penalty to $825. The…
Alcap Electrical Corp.
Subcontractor citations affirmed for employee exposure
Alcap Electrical was an electrical subcontractor at a building project where employees encountered unguarded floor openings, unguarded stairs, unsecured gas cylinders, and other construction hazards. Alcap argued that it did not create or control the hazardous conditions. The Commission held that a…
R. P. Drywall, Inc.
Citation withdrawal conditioned on employee notice
R. P. Drywall installed drywall on construction and reconstruction projects in Miami. OSHA cited the company over the condition and inspection of hand-held electric tools and extension cords, but later sought to dismiss the complaint and withdraw the citation because it lacked sufficient evidence…
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.