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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Gate Concrete Products Co.
Gantry crane guarding items partly vacated
Gate Concrete Products manufactured precast concrete products and used gantry cranes to move them around its Jacksonville plant. An employee lost two fingers after reaching through a missing engine-compartment door while a maintenance supervisor tried to start a stalled crane. The judge vacated the…
United States Steel Corporation
Pre-1971 crane guarding citation vacated
United States Steel was cited because exposed moving parts on overhead cranes lacked guards. The company established that the cranes were constructed and installed before August 31, 1971. The Commission held that the cited provision was a design specification that was only advisory for those older…
General Dynamics Corporation, Electric Boat Division
Pre-1971 crane items vacated
OSHA issued General Dynamics numerous serious and nonserious items under the overhead-crane and mobile-crane standards. The company sought partial summary judgment because the equipment had been constructed and installed before August 31, 1971. The Commission held that the cited provisions…
Interlake, Inc.
Six pre-1971 overhead-crane items vacated
OSHA cited Interlake under six overhead and gantry crane provisions. The company showed through testimony and business records that the cited cranes had been constructed or installed before August 31, 1971, and the Secretary did not rebut that evidence. The Commission held that the cited provisions…
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
Pre-1971 crane citation vacated
OSHA cited Westinghouse for failing to guard rotating couplings next to a walkway on an overhead crane under 29 C.F.R. § 1910.179(e)(6)(i). The judge vacated the item because employees did not use the walkway during what he considered the crane's normal operating conditions. The Commission affirmed…
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp., Wheeling Corrugating Company, Division of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corporation
Older-crane guarding citations are vacated
These consolidated cases involved electrical and moving-part guarding requirements for overhead and gantry cranes. The Commission held that the cited requirements were design specifications that were mandatory for cranes installed on or after August 31, 1971, but advisory for older cranes. Because…
Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Co.
Crane guarding item vacated for pre-1971 equipment
Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel operated two overhead cranes built in 1910 and 1935 with unguarded rotating couplings and gears. Maintenance employees sometimes worked near those moving parts, and the judge found that guards were feasible and inexpensive. The Commission classified the cited guarding…
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.