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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Malu Construction Co., and its successors
Jury-rigged scaffold items affirmed for $8,000
Malu called its framing workers independent subcontractors, but it supplied their scaffold and safety equipment, assigned their work, provided training, and retained authority to stop work. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz therefore treated them as Malu employees under the common-law control test. OSHA…
Windham Construction Corp.
Fall-protection and aerial-lift violations affirmed
Windham Construction Corporation was repairing structural steel beneath the Gowanus Expressway in New York. An OSHA officer saw an employee ride an aerial lift without tying off, climb onto the basket railing, and work between a shoring tower and a beam without fall protection. The judge credited…
Sterling Plumbing Group, Inc.
Lead-inspection warrant and citations upheld
A state health department referred reports that Sterling employees had blood-lead levels above OSHA's medical-removal threshold. After Sterling denied entry, OSHA obtained a warrant and cited lead-standard and recordkeeping violations. The Commission held that the warrant application contained…
Well-Tech, Inc.
Removed platform guardrail and missing site records produced $2,850 in penalties
Well-Tech, Inc. was a well-servicing contractor replugging and sampling wells at a chemical plant in Barberton, Ohio. Employees removed an eight-foot section of guardrail from a 16-foot-high drilling platform and placed caution tape across the opening; within about 15 minutes, an employee fell…
Hern Iron Works, Inc.
Record-access citation reinstated after appellate reversal
OSHA cited Hern Iron Works for willfully refusing to provide required injury and illness records during a 1988 inspection. The judge vacated the citation after concluding that the inspection was not supported by a valid warrant, subpoena, or consent. The Ninth Circuit reversed because the record…
Hern Iron Works, Inc.
150-day hearing delay reversed and case remanded
At the start of a scheduled hearing, Hern Iron Works obtained a 150-day postponement while related warrant litigation was pending in the Ninth Circuit. The Commission reversed because the motion was untimely, showed no exigent circumstances, and would indefinitely delay a case that the parties…
Keco Industries, Inc.
Record-access and blasting-respirator violations affirmed
Keco Industries manufactured military and aerospace equipment and performed abrasive blasting in an enclosed facility at its Ohio plant. The Commission affirmed a willful record-access violation because Keco refused repeated requests for prior injury and illness logs even after OSHA presented an…
Emerson Electric Company, Electronics & Space Division
Injury-record citation vacated
During an employee-complaint inspection, Emerson Electric allowed OSHA to inspect the stated complaint items but refused access to its injury and illness forms without a warrant or administrative subpoena. OSHA used neither form of legal process and issued a no-penalty citation for refusing the…
A.B. Chance Company
Record-access citation vacated for lack of legal process
A.B. Chance consented to an OSHA inspection limited to employee-complaint items but refused to provide its OSHA injury and illness forms without a warrant. OSHA did not obtain a warrant or issue an administrative subpoena and instead cited the company for denying access to the records. The judge…
Thermal Reduction Corporation
Willful refusal to produce injury log affirmed
During a warranted OSHA inspection, Thermal Reduction’s vice president twice refused to provide the company’s OSHA Form 200 injury and illness log unless the inspector promised that no disclosed information would ever be used against the company. The Commission held that the Act and recordkeeping…
Bay State Smelting Co., Inc.
Split Commission leaves judge's lead and posting rulings in place
Bay State Smelting operated a workplace where employees were exposed to excessive lead. The judge affirmed numerous serious lead-standard violations, including prohibited prophylactic chelation, but declined to classify the chelation violation as willful. The judge also vacated a citation-posting…
Consolidated Rail Corporation
Record-access citation vacated under then-controlling precedent
Conrail refused to give an OSHA compliance officer access to injury and illness records, relying on Commission precedent that treated railroad recordkeeping as exempt because of Federal Railroad Administration rules. The Commission had since overruled that precedent and held that railroad employers…
Building Products Company
Commission affirms the radial-saw lower-blade-guard charge and a total $150 penalty
Building Products Company manufactured wooden roof trusses using three radial saws whose employees had removed the lower blade guards. The company argued that the guards could eject wood chips during compound cuts and therefore created a separate hazard. The Commission held that the greater-hazard…
Buckeye Industries, Inc.
Garment-machine guarding violations affirmed
Buckeye Industries manufactured men's slacks using about 101 sewing machines, four electric knives, and 11 steam pressers without point-of-operation guards. Its records showed repeated finger, hand, and eye injuries involving the cited equipment. The Commission held that OSHA proved the violations…
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.