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…
Loretto-Oswego Residential Health Care Facility
Repeat violations reduced to serious
Loretto-Oswego operated a nursing home affiliated with two other Loretto facilities that had prior final orders for substantially similar violations. The judge treated the related corporations as a single employer and affirmed seven items as repeat. The Commission reversed because the facilities…
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…
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…
C-Post
Willful lockout and guarding citations cut to serious after a small fence-post maker's amputation injury
C-Post is a small Montana company that makes wooden fence posts and furniture legs from logs, employing about 10 people. After a worker's left hand was severed in a doweler machine, OSHA inspected and issued a long list of serious, willful, repeat, and other-than-serious citations covering…
A.E. Staley Manufacturing Co.
Asbestos, HazCom, and combustible-dust electrical violations largely affirmed, many as willful
A.E. Staley Manufacturing runs a large grain wet-milling plant in Decatur, Illinois. A lengthy OSHA inspection begun in July 1990 produced two sets of citations, consolidated here as Docket Nos. 91-0637 and 91-0638. In the first docket, the Commission affirmed as willful the asbestos items for…
Eyelematic Manufacturing Company, Inc.
Power-press, chain, cylinder, and electrical items produce $5,300
Eyelematic Manufacturing Company, Inc. made small metal parts at its Connecticut facility. Administrative Law Judge Richard DeBenedetto vacated a flammable-container item because the Secretary's amendment shifted the theory from approved container design to liquid transfer without evidence fitting…
Ingalls Shipbuilding, Inc.
Consolidated citations settle for $8,850
The Commission approved a complete settlement of three consolidated Ingalls Shipbuilding, Inc. dockets. Seven electrical-panel cabinet items were reclassified as other-than-serious with $600 total penalties, and Ingalls agreed to keep panel doors closed and replace missing blanks. A…
VSH Restaurant Corporation, d/b/a Vestal Steakhouse & Seafood Grill
Citation vacated after inspection evidence suppressed
Local fire and building officials inspected Vestal Steakhouse & Seafood Grill and gave the restaurant ten days to correct numerous electrical and fire-code conditions. The restaurant began repairs and had completed most listed items when OSHA inspected five days before the local deadline, using the…
Aubrey-National, Inc.
Case dismissed after Secretary withdrew citation
Aubrey-National, Inc. operated a plastic manufacturing facility where an employee was electrocuted after falling into exposed conductors in a regrinding machine's electrical control box. OSHA cited the company for failing to guard live electrical parts with an approved enclosure. The administrative…
Thermal Reduction Corporation
Review vacated after failure to comply with Commission orders
Thermal Reduction Corporation repeatedly failed to file required corporate-ownership information and current contact information for its representative. It also failed to respond to the Commission's show-cause order. The Commission therefore vacated the direction for review and made the ALJ's…
The Specialist of the South, Inc.
$3,000 penalty affirmed for 39 serious items
The Specialists operated a small furniture repair, refinishing, and upholstery business using flammable and toxic materials. OSHA cited 39 serious violations, primarily involving fire and explosion hazards, and proposed $9,900 in penalties. An ALJ affirmed every serious item but assessed a combined…
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.