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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Henry Marine Service, Inc.
Attorney-fee application denied
Henry Marine previously won summary judgment vacating OSHA citations concerning safe access to a tugboat and personal flotation devices. The company then sought $92,402.64 in attorney fees, expert fees, and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act. The judge found Henry Marine eligible and a…
Henry Marine Service, Inc.
Tugboat access and flotation citations vacated
Henry Marine operated a tugboat on the Mobile River, where an employee was found dead in the water near the vessel. OSHA cited the company for an unsafe means of boarding and leaving the vessel and for failing to provide a personal flotation device. The judge granted Henry Marine summary judgment…
Bronco Oilfield Services, Inc.
High-pressure line item partly affirmed
Bronco Oilfield Services used truck-mounted pumps and rigid piping to pressure-test an oil well at up to 9,500 psi. The judge affirmed a general duty clause instance because most of the high-pressure line was not secured against movement if a connection failed, and the company’s buffer zone did not…
St. Lawrence Food Corp., dba Primo Foods
Most dairy-plant health and safety citations affirmed
OSHA conducted health and safety inspections at Primo Foods, a kosher dairy, and cited hazards involving ammonia refrigeration, respirators, confined spaces, chemical training, noise, machine guarding, electrical work, lockout/tagout, powered industrial trucks, and recordkeeping. The ALJ found that…
Idaho Trout Processors, Co.
Hatchery guardrail and processing-machine items vacated, lockout item affirmed
Idaho Trout Processors operated a trout hatchery and a nearby fish-processing plant in Buhl, Idaho. OSHA cited unguarded catwalks over fish runs, but the judge found the hatchery was a separate agricultural establishment and that the general-industry walking-surface standard did not apply. He also…
Tireman's Tire Shop, Inc.
Unguarded repair pit and open breaker panels affirmed as serious
Tireman's Tire Shop, Inc. ran an auto tire and repair shop in New York. After an employee complaint, OSHA inspected in December 1996 and, while finding none of the complained-of conditions, cited two hazards in plain view. The first was a 40-foot-long, 5.5-foot-deep repair pit that was unguarded…
Computer Sciences Raytheon
Two launch-platform items vacated, ramp item affirmed
Computer Sciences Raytheon employees opened camera boxes on Kennedy Space Center's mobile launch platform after space shuttle launches. The judge found that workers approached unguarded blast holes and perimeter edges before tying off, but she vacated those two items under the multi-employer…
Bionetics Corp.
Three launch-platform fall items affirmed, $2,750 assessed
Bionetics employees retrieved film from camera boxes on a mobile launch platform at Kennedy Space Center after space shuttle launches. During two launches, blast-hole and perimeter guardrails had been removed, the deck was wet and windy, and employees approached cameras within a few feet of…
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…
Mobil Oil Corporation
Serious pit-guarding violation not willful
Mobil replaced an unsafe guardrail around a refinery wax pit with a wall, but a six-foot gap remained after a contractor's cost overrun. The pit supervisor requested completion, warned employees, and sometimes installed ropes, although those measures did not fully eliminate exposure to the slippery…
Consolidated Rail Corporation
Repair-pit and recordkeeping items vacated
OSHA cited Conrail after inspecting a diesel shop in Buffalo, New York, alleging unguarded locomotive repair pits and failure to maintain an occupational injury and illness log. The Commission vacated the pit-guarding item because its then-current precedent treated a Federal Railroad Administration…
Consolidated Rail Corporation
Guarding items vacated and safety-shoe items affirmed
OSHA cited Conrail's locomotive repair shops in Enola and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for unguarded repair pits and work platforms and for not requiring steel-toed safety shoes. The Commission vacated the guarding items because a Federal Railroad Administration policy statement displaced OSHA…
Union Railroad Company
Locomotive repair-pit violation affirmed
Employees worked beside and crossed two locomotive repair pits that were partly or completely open for substantial periods without covers or guardrails. The Commission rejected suppression of pre-Barlow's inspection evidence and held that a Federal Railroad Administration policy statement did not…
Greyhound Lines, Inc.
Commission affirms citation for unguarded vehicle service pit and rejects a vagueness challenge to the standard
Greyhound Lines was cited for failing to cover or guard an open vehicle service pit, which OSHA treated as a violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1910.22(c). Administrative Law Judge John A. Carlson decided the case on stipulated facts, without a hearing, and found the violation. Greyhound sought Commission…
Consolidated Freightways Corporation
OSHA applies to unguarded truck maintenance pits
Consolidated Freightways operated a truck terminal maintenance shop with seven service pits and about 300 employees. The company argued that federal motor-carrier regulation displaced OSHA jurisdiction, but the Commission found no other federal regulation governing maintenance-shop safety and held…
Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Co.
Amended open-pit citation affirmed
Kaiser was originally cited under a floor-hole standard for failing to provide covers or guardrails around open carbon pits. In an earlier order, the Commission found that the open-pit standard applied instead and provisionally amended the citation. Kaiser argued that the amendment caused…
Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.
Amended open-pit guarding citation affirmed
Kaiser was originally cited under a floor-hole standard for failing to cover or guard open carbon pits. In an earlier decision, the Commission substituted the standard specifically requiring covers or guardrails for open pits and gave Kaiser an opportunity to object. The Commission rejected…
General Electric Company
Unguarded paint-room pit violated open-pit standard
General Electric used a long, five-foot-deep pit to paint the undersides of railroad cars at its Erie facility. After a car left the room, painters routinely cleaned debris from a floor surrounding the unguarded pit and worked within two to three feet of its edge. The Commission held that…
Greyhound Lines, Inc.
Unguarded bus service pits violated open-pit rule
Greyhound maintained 15 bus service pits that were 42 feet long, four feet wide, and four feet six inches deep. The pits lacked covers or guardrails when buses were not being serviced, and employees regularly worked in the surrounding area. The Commission rejected Greyhound's claim that federal…
National Rolling Mills Co.
Open-pit item reduced to de minimis
National Rolling Mills operated a steel mill where an employee sometimes stepped across a 23-inch-wide pit to guide a coil onto a spindle. The Commission held that the open-pit standard applied because the coil buggy and tracks did not fully occupy the opening, and the standard itself presumed a…
Greyhound Lines-West
Open maintenance-pit citation affirmed with no penalty
Greyhound operated a bus maintenance pit that was 40 feet long, about 5.5 feet deep, and unguarded whenever no bus covered it. A yellow stripe marked the pit, but employees still worked around and inside the area while it was open for periods ranging from a few minutes to as long as two hours. The…
Ricardo Correa, Jr., d/b/a Ricardo's Mexican Enterprises of Omaha
Masa-feeder failure-to-abate penalties vacated
Ricardo's Mexican Enterprises produced Mexican food in Omaha, Nebraska. OSHA initially cited conditions involving a masa feeder after a young employee was fatally injured while cleaning the machine, and the uncontested citation became final. In the later failure-to-abate case, the Commission found…
Bouma Post Yards, Inc.
Split mill-safety ruling affirmed with no penalties
Bouma Post Yards operated a small Montana mill that processed logs into fence posts. OSHA cited a broad group of conditions involving tanks, fuel dispensing, defective equipment, industrial trucks, machinery, welding cables, electrical grounding, wire rope, vehicle alarms, and fire extinguishers…
Transcon Lines, Inc.
Maintenance-pit and excessive-noise violations affirmed
Transcon Lines operated truck-maintenance facilities with six vehicle pits that were periodically left uncovered and had no guardrails. Employees in a fuel-tank repair area were also exposed for an hour a day to noise measured at 124 and 128 decibels. The company supplied hearing protection but…
Lee Way Motor Freight, Inc.
Open service-pit citation restored
Lee Way Motor Freight operated four long vehicle-service pits without covers or guardrails. Mechanics worked around and stepped over the pits, and the surrounding floor could become wet with oil, ice, snow, or rainwater. The judge vacated that item because the accident risk appeared low, but the…
Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation
Contested pit citation affirmed after withdrawal
Kaiser Aluminum received a two-item citation for other-than-serious violations, including unguarded pits and a powered-industrial-truck condition. The company contested only Item 1(b), which concerned eight unguarded pits and carried an amended $40 penalty. Kaiser later moved to withdraw that…
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.