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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Timberline Hardwood Floors LLC
Most violations affirmed with $166,265 in penalties
Timberline manufactured hardwood flooring with woodworking machinery at the same facility used by a predecessor company under the same manager. OSHA cited extensive deficiencies involving hearing conservation, hazard communication, exits, fire-extinguisher training, machine guarding, compressed…
Matsu Alabama, Inc., d/b/a A Division of Matcor Automotive, Inc.
Press-safety and repeat machine-guarding citations largely affirmed
Matsu Alabama assigned a temporary worker hired as a janitor to operate and load a mechanical press without adequate press training or supervision. A bent crowder-bar safeguard failed to keep him within the light curtain, and the press caused severe amputation injuries to both hands and one…
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…
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…
Lewis County Dairy Corp.
Widespread safety violations result in $72,750 penalty
OSHA found extensive safety deficiencies at Lewis County Dairy's kosher dairy plant, including missing safety programs, inadequate lockout practices, unguarded equipment, electrical hazards, deficient fall protection, and insufficient hazard communication. Of the 33 serious citation items, the…
Sturm Ruger & Co., Pine Tree Castings Division
Targeted inspection and settlements affirmed
OSHA used injury and illness data from Pine Tree Castings to select the handgun-casting facility for a programmed inspection under a nationwide targeting plan. Sturm Ruger challenged the data survey, inspection warrant, discovery rulings, evidence, and subpoenas. The Commission held that OSHA had…
Luna Tech, Inc.
Settlement approved with $50,000 in combined penalties
The two cases arose from OSHA inspections of Luna Tech's fireworks-manufacturing plant, including an inspection after explosions and fires injured three employees and one later died. While the cases were under Commission review, the parties settled all remaining issues. The Secretary withdrew…
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…
Art Specialty Company
Lamp manufacturer receives mixed ruling and $5,700 penalty
OSHA cited Art Specialty Company, a 29-employee lamp manufacturer, for numerous serious and other-than-serious conditions. The judge vacated a stairway citation because the Secretary did not prove employees used the stairs, and vacated the metal-shear portion of a machine-guarding item because the…
Conagra Flour Milling Company
Commission splits flour-mill safety citations and assesses $500
Conagra operated a flour-milling facility in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, where OSHA cited battery servicing, powered industrial trucks, machine guarding, compressed-air cleaning, and grain-handling practices. The Commission vacated the personal-protective-equipment and eyewash items because OSHA's…
Loomis Cabinet Company
Cabinet workers held to be employees
Loomis Cabinet Company manufactured wooden cabinets and was cited after a follow-up inspection for repeat, other-than-serious, and failure-to-abate violations. Loomis stipulated to the violations but argued that its former employees had become partners in Eastview Cabinet Company, leaving Loomis…
Harrison Furniture Manufacturing Company
Commission approves withdrawal of all citations
OSHA cited Harrison Furniture Manufacturing Company for numerous conditions at its Arkansas furniture plant after an inspection conducted under a warrant. The earlier litigation addressed whether evidence from a plant-wide inspection should be suppressed when the warrant application was based on…
Anoplate Corporation
Mixed ruling on plating, chemical storage, and recordkeeping items
Anoplate operated an electroplating and metal-finishing plant with open chemical tanks, chemical storage, spray painting, and compressed-air work. The Commission affirmed a nonserious eye-protection violation because dipping racks created a significant risk of harmful splashes, and it assessed $25…
Simmons, Inc.
Compressed-air and elevated-work violations affirmed
Simmons employees regularly removed reduction nozzles and used compressed air above 30 p.s.i. to clean cotton from machinery. The Commission rejected the company's arguments that this was unknown misconduct or production work outside the cleaning rule, and it treated the condition as a separate…
Idaho Travertine Corporation
Most stone-processing citations affirmed with penalties reduced to $125
Idaho Travertine Corporation processed quarried stone at a small plant in Idaho Falls. OSHA issued one serious radial-saw citation and 13 nonserious items covering noise, personal protective equipment, machinery, compressed gas, emergency flushing, exits, and housekeeping. The judge affirmed the…
Nabisco, Inc.
Direction for review vacated by court order
The Commission vacated its direction for review in Nabisco's case as required by an order from the Fifth Circuit. The attached administrative law judge's decision had dismissed the complaint concerning a compressed-air cleaning citation under 29 C.F.R. § 1910.242(b). The judge concluded that the…
The Gould-Mersereau Co., Inc.
Machine-guarding violations partly affirmed
Gould-Mersereau manufactured drapery hardware at a New York City plant where an inspection produced thirteen nonserious citation items. The judge affirmed machine-guarding violations involving feed rollers, a power-press pedal, and ten riveting machines, but vacated the portions involving a…
Stowe Canoe Company
Twenty-one safety items affirmed
Stowe Canoe operated a small Vermont canoe-manufacturing facility. OSHA cited 22 conditions involving machine guarding, eye protection, flammable-liquid handling, fire extinguishers, compressed air, electrical equipment, aisle marking, and injury-record posting. The judge affirmed the first 21…
Collator Corporation
Press-brake subitems vacated and remaining citation affirmed
Collator Corporation manufactured collating machines at a Seattle plant. Its notice of contest referred only to the proposed penalties, but its answer and statements at the hearing showed that it also intended to contest two press-brake guarding subitems. The Commission therefore treated those…
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…
Madison Millwork Co.
Radial-saw violations reduced to nonserious
Madison Millwork operated two radial arm saws without guards covering the exposed sides of the lower blade and used compressed air for cleaning above 30 pounds per square inch. The Commission upheld the validity of the radial-saw guarding standard and affirmed the administrative law judge's…
Idaho Travertine Corporation
Mine-safety jurisdiction dismissal reversed and case remanded
Idaho Travertine quarried large stone blocks at remote sites and transported them to an Idaho Falls plant for cutting, honing, polishing, and finishing. OSHA issued one serious citation and 12 nonserious citations with $1,290 in proposed penalties, but the judge vacated them because he placed the…
Tobacco River Lumber Co.
Mixed ruling on thirty sawmill citation items
Tobacco River operated a Montana sawmill and planing mill that received a thirty-item citation covering housekeeping, stairs, protective equipment, fire safety, tools, gas cylinders, machinery, and electrical conditions. The Commission upheld the inspection because a company employee with authority…
Star Textile & Research, Inc.
Variances moot two contested citation items
Star Textile contested citation items requiring foreign-metal removal equipment on textile opener lines and overhead guards on powered industrial trucks. While the case was pending, the Secretary granted variances after determining that the company's alternative conditions were as safe as…
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…
Chamberlain Manufacturing Corp.
Nine violations affirmed, penalties set at $1,292.50
Chamberlain operated an Iowa manufacturing plant producing ammunition components, appliance shelving, and aluminum ladders. The judge affirmed nine nonserious items involving damaged hoist ropes and a distorted hook, missing electrical covers, excessive compressed-air pressure, emergency washing…
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…
Empire Art Products Co., Inc.
Failure-to-abate penalties reduced to $375
Empire Art Products assembled decorative products at a small New York workplace. A reinspection found that several electrical tools and machines remained ungrounded and that one of two cited exit-sign conditions remained uncorrected. OSHA did not prove that a compressed-air item remained unabated…
Sequoyah Spinning Mills, Inc.
Plant penalties affirmed and noise penalties vacated
Sequoyah Spinning Mills manufactured carpet yarn at a plant with 246 employees. In docket 1012, the company admitted 16 nonserious conditions involving housekeeping, combustible materials, fire protection, chemical protection, machine guarding, compressed air, welding cylinders, and electrical…
St. Mary's Cotton Mill, Division of Leshner Corporation
Nineteen plant violations affirmed
St. Mary's Cotton Mill admitted 19 nonserious conditions involving compressed air, machine guards, fire extinguishers, electrical grounding, exits, floor openings, storage, housekeeping, and other plant equipment. OSHA proposed penalties on ten of the items, totaling $375, and no penalties on the…
Fort Hill Lumber Company
Three failure-to-abate items affirmed
Fort Hill Lumber received a failure-to-abate notice covering nine earlier sawmill violations with more than $16,000 in proposed additional penalties, plus a new lumber-carrier brake citation. On review, the Secretary withdrew five items for lack of proof, and the Commission also left other…
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…
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…
Southern Indiana Gas & Electric Co.
Noise citation affirmed without a penalty
Southern Indiana Gas & Electric operated a generating station where boiler-room sound readings reached 97 to 103 dBA. The utility had supplied ear protection and was pursuing an engineering solution, but the judge found that it did not consistently require employees to use the protection. The…
Sunpruf Aluminum Products, Inc.
Eight safety items affirmed without penalties
Sunpruf manufactured aluminum storm windows and doors at a Nashville plant with about 30 employees. OSHA cited conditions involving electrical boxes, compressed air, respiratory and welding protection, personal protective equipment, first aid, housekeeping, and aisle marking. The Secretary withdrew…
Milprint, Inc.
Fixed-stair item vacated for lack of proof
OSHA issued Milprint 13 non-serious citation items covering conditions at its Milwaukee plant. The judge affirmed nine items and vacated four, assessing penalties totaling $280. On review, the Commission reversed the fixed-stair item because OSHA did not prove that employees regularly used the…
Hi-Fi Carpet Mills, Inc.
Late contest rejected
OSHA cited Hi-Fi Carpet Mills for eight non-serious conditions involving electrical grounding, compressed air, exits, access to electrical controls, housekeeping, and flexible wiring. The company received the citation and proposed penalties on January 19, 1972, making February 9 the final day to…
Frankford Woolen Mills, Inc.
Tenant floor-load item vacated and $335 assessed
Frankford Woolen Mills was cited for 24 non-serious conditions involving housekeeping, stairs, ladders, exits, eye protection, fire extinguishers, machinery, compressed air, welding equipment, electrical grounding, and aisles. The administrative law judge affirmed 19 items, vacated five, and…
Plawner Toy Manufacturing Corporation
Extinguisher item vacated and exit item affirmed
Plawner Toy Manufacturing Corporation operated a small New Jersey plant that made plastic objects. OSHA cited the company for an air nozzle that allegedly exceeded the pressure limit, two unmounted fire extinguishers, and blocked exits, with proposed penalties totaling $140. The judge vacated the…
Clavier Corporation
Ten safety items affirmed and two vacated
Clavier Corporation researched, developed, and manufactured electrical equipment in New York. OSHA issued a 12-item citation covering conditions that included compressed-gas cylinders, machine guarding, first-aid readiness, compressed-air cleaning, flammable-liquid containers, and electrical…
Vitamin Premixers of Omaha, Inc.
Six safety violations affirmed with $400 penalty
Vitamin Premixers of Omaha produced and distributed premixed animal feed. The company admitted six nonserious violations involving fire extinguishers, unguarded fan blades, emergency drenching or eyewash facilities, a weak stair handrail, compressed-air cleaning, and electrical motors in a…
Blue Ribbon Industries, Inc.
Contest dismissed and $100 penalty affirmed
Blue Ribbon Industries received four non-serious citations involving excessive compressed-air pressure, a locked exit, an unguarded compressor, and flexible cord used as fixed wiring. OSHA proposed no penalties for the first two items and $100 total for the other two. The case was initially…
Midvale-Heppenstall Company
Descaling item vacated and immediate abatement ordered
Midvale-Heppenstall manufactured steel forgings in Philadelphia and used compressed air above 30 p.s.i. in several plant operations. The judge affirmed violations for air hoses used for cleaning in the power plant and machine shop but vacated the press-plant allegation. The press operation used an…
J. E. Chilton Millwork & Lumber Company, Inc.
Six items affirmed with no penalties
OSHA cited J. E. Chilton Millwork for seven non-serious violations involving first aid, housekeeping, lunch space, extinguisher inspections, toilet partitions, equipment grounding, and compressed-air cleaning. The judge treated the toilet-partition item as de minimis, vacated that citation 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.