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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Kenneth P. Thompson Co., Inc.
Fire and fall items mostly affirmed, roof-storage item vacated
The masonry subcontractor faced several citations at a motel construction project. The Commission affirmed fire-extinguisher requirements for a gasoline refueling area and an LP-gas storage location, an uncovered floor-hole item, and serious wall-opening items. It reduced the storage-trailer access…
Glendale Mills Inc.
Three violations affirmed and poster item vacated
Glendale Mills manufactured knitwear and clothing at a New York plant where OSHA found misleading exit doors, an unrailed stairway, a temporarily missing OSHA poster, and an inadequately guarded bench grinder. The judge affirmed the exit, stair, and grinder items but found that the company had…
Union Pacific Railroad Co.
Proposed FRA rules do not displace OSHA
Union Pacific faced a failure-to-correct matter and citations involving machine guarding, woodworking equipment, respiratory protection, posting, and other conditions. It argued that an advance notice of proposed Federal Railroad Administration rulemaking exempted it from OSHA requirements. The…
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…
Anthony Izzo Company, Inc.
Unguarded masonry scaffolds and seven other items affirmed
Anthony Izzo Company was a masonry contractor with employees working on two tubular welded-frame scaffolds. The platforms were 15 and 19 feet above concrete, lacked guardrails, midrails, and toeboards, and had employees working below them where bricks or debris could fall. The judge found a serious…
Petrocelli Electric Co., Inc.
Hard-hat item affirmed and posting item vacated
OSHA cited electrical contractor Petrocelli for failing to post the required OSHA notice and for employees working without protective helmets at a Brooklyn construction site. The judge vacated the posting item because OSHA had not furnished the company with the notice before the inspection…
Central of Georgia Railroad Company
Railroad liable for hazardous conditions on customer tracks
Central of Georgia Railroad sent switching crews onto tracks owned and maintained by Continental Can, where lime, oil, mud, chips, and water created unsafe walking conditions. The Commission rejected the railroad's argument that Federal Railroad Administration authority displaced OSHA jurisdiction…
Data Electric Company, Inc.
Three items affirmed and one stairway item vacated
Data Electric was an electrical subcontractor on construction of a municipal services building in New York. It did not create or control the unguarded stairways and floor perimeters, but the Commission held that a noncontrolling subcontractor must take realistic measures to protect its own…
K & B Sheet Metal, Inc.
Three nonserious construction violations affirmed with $150 in penalties
K & B Sheet Metal, a sheet-metal subcontractor at a Suffolk Community College construction site, was cited after its employees worked amid concrete-block and brick debris and in building areas without the required firefighting equipment. The company also had not posted the required OSHA notice. The…
J. D. Blum Construction Company
Serious trench citation reinstated
J. D. Blum Construction excavated a water-main trench that was up to 7.5 feet deep, contained wet clay and loam, and was sloped at about 65 degrees without shoring or bracing. The Commission found the soil soft and unstable based on water seepage, sloughing, photographs, and witness testimony. It…
Acme Metal, Inc.
Penalty-only contests leave citations final
Acme Metal operated two steel-fabricating plants in Portland, Oregon. OSHA cited machine-guarding and posting violations after inspecting both plants. The Commission held that Acme's notices of contest placed only the penalties at issue for the table saw in docket 1811 and the metal saw and posting…
Penn Central Transportation Co.
Rail-shop safety violations and $625 penalty affirmed
OSHA cited Penn Central's railway maintenance and repair shop for 15 nonserious conditions involving fall protection, fire and chemical safety, compressed air, machine and electrical guarding, and failure to post the OSHA notice. The Commission agreed that railroad status did not remove OSHA…
Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Co.
Housekeeping and posting items remanded for a hearing
Seaboard Coast Line received five nonserious items for poor housekeeping, failure to post the OSHA notice, and recordkeeping deficiencies. The judge vacated the three recordkeeping items because railroad recordkeeping was exempt, but affirmed the housekeeping and posting items without holding a…
Grand Union Company
Retail-butcher mesh-glove citations vacated
Grand Union operated retail grocery stores where butchers trimmed and deboned meat with sharp knives but did not wear steel mesh gloves. OSHA cited two stores under the general personal-protective-equipment rule, and the administrative law judges found that hand protection was required. The…
Southern Railway Company
Locomotive-derailer violation and $200 penalty affirmed
Southern Railway employees worked in maintenance pits where moving locomotives could strike locomotives under repair, and the company relied on its industry-standard blue-flag or blue-light rule rather than installing derailers. The Commission held that industry custom helped establish recognition…
Belt Railway Co. of Chicago, et al.
Railroad industry exemption rejected
This consolidated decision covers 19 dockets involving 11 railroad employers cited for workplace-safety violations. The violations were generally undisputed, but the railroads argued that Department of Transportation safety regulation created an industry-wide exemption from the OSH Act. The…
Urban Builders, Inc.
Citations affirmed despite incorrect company name
Urban Builders was the general contractor for an apartment project cited for two serious violations and multiple nonserious violations. OSHA mistakenly addressed the citations to Urban Developers, Inc., a different corporate name. Urban Builders' president had attended the inspection conferences…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Allstate Trailer Sales, Inc.
Penalties reassessed after citations became final
Allstate Trailer Sales manufactured recreational vehicles at a Seattle plant. OSHA issued a serious citation involving unguarded saws and an eleven-item nonserious citation covering posting, recordkeeping, machine guarding, electrical grounding, and eye protection. Allstate's timely notice…
Petrolane Offshore Construction Service, Inc.
Maritime work citations affirmed under OSHA coverage
Petrolane performed offshore construction and ship repair work at a Louisiana site, including conversion of a barge and sandblasting a drilling-platform structure. OSHA issued seventeen nonserious citation items covering recordkeeping, cranes, abrasive blasting, compressed-gas cylinders, scaffolds…
Danco construction Company
Mixed ruling on sewer-work citations and penalties
Danco received consolidated citations from three Little Rock sewer-construction sites involving posting, hard hats, fire protection, fuel handling, trenching, electrical equipment, ladders, traffic visibility, and spoil placement. The Commission held that Danco's timely contest of a citation also…
Illinois Central Gulf Railroad Co.
Forty-six citation items vacated as untimely
OSHA cited 46 alleged safety, health, recordkeeping, and posting violations at Illinois Central Gulf Railroad's locomotive repair facility in Paducah, Kentucky. The inspection was coordinated with the Federal Railroad Administration, and the proposed citation moved through regional and national…
Frank Galey, Jr., d/b/a Galey Construction Co.
Ladder item reinstated and trench violation classified as nonserious
Galey Construction installed drain pipe in a long trench that reached approximately 18 feet deep at its western end. The Commission affirmed a trenching violation as nonserious because the hard, compact soil was nearly sloped to the required angle and the record did not establish a substantial…
Western Metal Decorating Company
Stairway item reinstated and respiratory-protection item vacated
Western Metal Decorating Company decorated flat sheets of tin and steel using coating, printing, and baking lines. OSHA issued a 25-item citation covering conditions that included housekeeping, powered industrial trucks, flammable liquids, machinery, electrical equipment, employee eating areas, and…
Wayne Taysom & Eli Taysom, d/b/a Taysom Construction Company
Crane power-line violation affirmed with a $300 penalty
Taysom Construction was building a concrete bank vault and used a crane to move cement from a delivery truck to the vault. The crane boom contacted an energized 12,000-volt power line, and the delivery-truck driver was killed when current traveled through the crane cable and bucket. The judge found…
Martin Iron Works, Inc.
Crane inspection violations added without penalties
Martin Iron Works used a crane beyond the manufacturer's rated lifting radius and capacity during structural steel erection at a Nevada casino project. The judge affirmed that serious violation for $850, along with an inadequate ladder for $55, unsecured gas cylinders for $55, and an improperly…
Norfolk & Western Railway Co.
Poster item affirmed, recordkeeping items vacated
Norfolk & Western operated a railroad switching and maintenance yard in Bellevue, Ohio. OSHA cited it for failing to post the required employee-rights notice and for failing to maintain the injury log, supplementary record, and annual summary. The Commission affirmed the poster citation and its $50…
Gelhaar Uniform Co.
Needle-guard violation affirmed, exit item vacated
Gelhaar manufactured uniforms using dozens of powered sewing machines without point-of-operation needle guards. The Commission affirmed that violation and its $30 penalty because the exposed needles could puncture operators and employee resistance did not excuse missing guards. It vacated a…
Abdo S. Allen Co.
Demolition, posting, and recordkeeping allegations vacated
A front-end loader operator was killed when he drove onto an underground tunnel roof despite repeated instructions and warnings to avoid it. The Commission affirmed the judge's order vacating every allegation. The employer could not reasonably have anticipated the experienced operator's conduct…
Shaffer Construction & Engineering Co.
Fatal trenching violations affirmed
Eight employees worked in an approximately eight-foot-deep trench cut into soft, wet, unstable soil near highway and railroad traffic. The walls were almost vertical, had no shoring or bracing, and one wall collapsed and killed an employee. The Commission affirmed a serious violation of the…
Penn Central Transportation Company
Untimely railroad citations remained final
OSHA cited Penn Central for unsafe track conditions and multiple shop, office, electrical, housekeeping, and recordkeeping conditions at a Virginia rail yard. Penn Central did not timely contest the original citations, so the Commission held that they became final by operation of law and the…
Southern Pacific Transportation Company
Railroad shop items affirmed, recordkeeping item vacated
Southern Pacific Transportation Company operated a railroad shop facility in Houston, Texas. It admitted that it had not displayed the required OSHA poster, maintained the required injury and illness log, kept a monthly signed inspection report for crane hoist attachments, or marked each…
Clarence Martin, d/b/a Martin Masonry Company
Penalties reduced for small masonry contractor
Martin Masonry Company was completing a penthouse on the roof of a six-story building in Oakland, California. The company conceded violations involving an employee working near the roof edge without a safety belt, a masonry-saw operator without goggles, makeshift fasteners on a material hoist, and…
Jack Shelton, d/b/a Jack Shelton Painting Contractor
Sandblasting item reduced to nonserious
Jack Shelton Painting Contractor used a rented sandblaster and a mobile scaffold at an Idaho construction project. The sandblasting nozzle lacked a manual operating valve, so the worker holding it had to signal another employee to shut off the equipment. The judge found a violation but reclassified…
Hartwell Excavating Company
Trench citations modified and penalties reduced
Hartwell Excavating was installing a sewer line in an Idaho trench that exceeded five feet in depth and had unsloped sides in sand-and-gravel soil. OSHA also cited excavated material stored at the trench edge, missing exit ladders, a worker positioned beneath part of a backhoe bucket, an incomplete…
Rudolph Marossy
Power-line painting violation affirmed with $100 penalty
Rudolph Marossy operated a very small painting business and allowed an employee to spray-paint a silo within roughly three feet of uninsulated power lines carrying 7,000 volts. The lines were not deenergized or grounded, and no effective insulation or other protection was provided. The employee…
Puterbaugh Enterprises, Inc.
Trench and recordkeeping violations affirmed
Puterbaugh Enterprises laid sewer pipe in a trench about ten feet deep and two feet wide with vertical walls and no shoring, bracing, sheeting, or sloping. The trench caved in and killed an employee who had returned to resume pipe-laying work. The Commission affirmed the serious trench violation…
Bettendorf Terminal Co. & Le Claire Quarries, Inc.
OSHA jurisdiction and $370 affirmed
Le Claire Quarries employees unloaded, dewatered, stored, and sold river sand at property owned by Bettendorf Terminal. The companies argued that the Federal Metal and Non-Metallic Mine Safety Act displaced OSHA jurisdiction. The Commission rejected that defense because the terminal was ten miles…
Metals Selling Corporation, Inc.
Combustible-liquid cabinet item vacated
Metals Selling Corporation manufactured metallic chemicals and structures, with much of its business involving magnesium grinding. OSHA issued 20 nonserious items covering housekeeping, aisles, stairs, exits, gas cylinders, personal protective equipment, fire protection, machine guarding…
Cable Car Advertisers, Inc.
Ship-repair and posting citations partly affirmed
Cable Car Advertisers was converting the burned-out ferryboat San Leandro into a floating office while it was moored in San Francisco Bay. The Commission held that work on the floating, towable structure was covered by the maritime standards and that maintaining a workplace on navigable waters…
Lake Butler Apparel Company
Electrical-grounding penalty restored
Lake Butler Apparel manufactured clothing and continuously used six ungrounded portable electrical tools or appliances. The judge affirmed the electrical-grounding, fire-extinguisher color, and OSHA-notice posting violations, but vacated a grinder work-rest item for lack of factual proof. 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.