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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Basic Marine, Inc.
Most shipyard citations affirmed
Basic Marine performed shipbuilding and repair work involving confined spaces, hazardous coatings, forklifts, cranes, lifting equipment, and work on barges and a pier. The judge affirmed nearly all contested items, including violations involving confined-space testing and rescue, respiratory…
North Atlantic Fish Company, Inc.
Broad fish-plant safety violations affirmed
OSHA's safety and health inspections of North Atlantic's Massachusetts fish-processing plant identified extensive fire, machine, electrical, chemical, respiratory, noise, storage, and powered-industrial-truck hazards. The judge affirmed most of the serious items, including general duty violations…
Piggly Wiggly Alabama Distribution Co., Inc.
Wheel-chock violation stands, but training and recordkeeping items fail
Piggly Wiggly operated a large grocery distribution warehouse where a forklift operator was killed when a hostler moved a trailer away from the dock while the employee was still inside. OSHA's inspection produced serious, willful, and recordkeeping citation items. The judge affirmed the serious…
H. Carr & Sons Inc.
Contractor is liable for repeated fall hazard under economic-realities test
H. Carr & Sons worked on a shopping mall and movie theater project in Providence, Rhode Island. OSHA observed a worker on a mezzanine about 14 feet above a concrete floor where a sagging wire rope did not provide adequate fall protection. Although another company issued the worker's paycheck…
Tyson Foods, Inc.
Forklift training and repair items vacated after farm fatality
A Tyson Foods employee was fatally injured when a specialized three-wheeled forklift overturned while he collected frozen chicken carcasses from a contract poultry farm. Judge Nancy J. Spies held that the agricultural-operations exception did not apply because collecting the carcasses was…
Sea-Jet Trucking Corp.
Five failure-to-abate items affirmed at a New Jersey warehouse, $101,200 in penalties
Sea-Jet Trucking Corp. ran an import-export warehouse in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where most workers were Spanish-speaking. After a 1994 inspection, OSHA cited the company for numerous violations, which it agreed to abate by April 1995 in a signed settlement. When OSHA did not receive an abatement…
Color Image, Inc.
Ten-minute forklift instruction was inadequate
Color Image used a stand-up forklift in its warehouse and allowed four employees to operate it. An employee who had experience only with a different type of forklift received a ten-minute oral demonstration in Vietnamese, was not tested, and was later seen operating unsafely several times. OSHA…
Trinity Industries, Inc.
Full-scope inspection warrant upheld
Trinity manufactured tanks and pressure vessels at a Sharonville, Ohio, facility. After an employee complaint, OSHA obtained a warrant authorizing a limited complaint inspection, a records review, and a full-scope inspection if neutral administrative-plan criteria were met. The facility's…
Trinity Industries, Inc.
Forklift-training item vacated for insufficient proof
Trinity used five forklifts at its San Antonio steel-fabrication plant, operated by employees with 15 to 30 years of experience. OSHA alleged that Trinity had not devised adequate methods to train those operators. The record showed that management monitored operator proficiency and that a…
Miller Brewing Company
Forklift citation amendment allowed
A Miller Brewing employee drove a forklift with elevated forks, struck an overhead conveyor catwalk, overturned the truck, and was fatally injured. OSHA initially cited the condition under the general duty clause, but the judge dismissed that charge because powered-industrial-truck standards…
Everglades Sugar Refinery, Inc.
Unauthorized payloader repair violation affirmed
Two Everglades Sugar Refinery employees attempted to repair a payloader with a defective throttle linkage, and one employee was fatally injured when its raised bucket fell. The Commission held that the powered-industrial-truck maintenance rule applied because the hazard arose from allowing…
Worcester Pressed Steel Company
Duplicate aisle item vacated, higher penalties sustained
Worcester Pressed Steel Company operated a large metal-stamping plant cited for 40 nonserious safety violations. The cited conditions included poor housekeeping and floors, obstructed and unmarked aisles, missing exit signs and eye protection, forklift hazards, inadequate machine guarding, and…
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.