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.
No decisions match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
Joel Patterson Air Conditioning Recycling
Workplace violations resulted in $4,100 in penalties
Joel Patterson Air Conditioning Recycling paid workers daily to dismantle used air conditioners at its warehouse but labeled them subcontractors. Applying the economic-realities test, the judge found they were employees because the business controlled the workplace, pay, hours, equipment, hiring…
Material Fabrication Corporation
Mixed ALJ decision affirmed without review
The judge found Material Fabrication in violation of several OSHA standards and rejected other alleged violations. Commission review was directed only on whether the judge erred in finding no violation of the scaffold standard at 29 C.F.R. § 1910.28(a)(1). Neither party sought review or submitted a…
Kennecott Copper Corporation
Scaffold citations and $350 penalty vacated
A lead burner at Kennecott's smelter worked on a narrow, unguarded plank scaffold almost 12 feet above a concrete floor and climbed to it using a wooden beam and the ribs of a mist treater. The Commission vacated the guardrail item because the Secretary had changed the source consensus standard's…
Allis-Chalmers Corporation
Scaffold item affirmed for work atop a ball mill
Allis-Chalmers manufactured heavy industrial equipment at a large Wisconsin plant that OSHA cited for 118 nonserious violations. The company contested selected scaffold and eye-protection subitems, and the judge vacated all of those contested charges. The Commission held that a scaffold citation…
Bethlehem Steel Corporation
Repeated scaffold citation vacated
A Bethlehem Steel electrical rigger fell to his death while performing maintenance work high above the floor on an overhead crane. OSHA alleged a repeated violation of the general scaffold rule and sought to add the general personal-protective-equipment rule because the employee was not wearing a…
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.