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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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…
ASAMERA Oil (U.S.), Inc.
Hazardous-location electrical citation vacated
OSHA cited Asamera Oil for placing unapproved electrical equipment near potential hydrocarbon sources at its Colorado refinery. The judge vacated the citation after finding the definition of a Class I, Division 2 location unconstitutionally vague as applied. The Commission rejected the vagueness…
Clement Food Company
Stacking, pulley, and platform items affirmed; forklift and fan items vacated
Clement Food bottled food products at an Oklahoma City plant and contested several storage, forklift, machine, electrical, and fall-protection items. The Commission affirmed a citation for a leaning 15-foot stack of boxes and a serious pulley-guarding violation, reducing the pulley penalty to $70…
ECCO High Frequency Electric Corp.
Unguarded energized bus bars violated electrical rule
ECCO operated an electrical test panel with three uninsulated copper bars energized at 110 to 220 volts. The bars were five to six feet above the floor, the surrounding area had no partitions, and a railing did not satisfy the guarding methods required by the adopted National Electrical Code…
Blocksom and Company
Lockout, cord, and machine items affirmed in part
The Commission reviewed citations involving emergency respirator training, electrical grounding and cord splices, lockout procedures, and guarding on several machines at Blocksom's stuffing-material plant. It vacated the respirator-training item because the company no longer intended employees to…
Ormet Corporation
Electrical-switch guarding citation vacated
Ormet's employees deliberately broke the locking clasp and guards on a main electrical disconnect controlling 13 conveyor belts. OSHA cited the company under a National Electrical Code provision requiring protection where electrical equipment is exposed to physical damage. The Commission held that…
Trinity Industries, Inc.
Six truck-shop and fuel-shed items remanded
Six citation items involved conditions in a fuel-pump shed and truck shop at Trinity Industries' manufacturing plant. The judge vacated them after finding that workers in those areas belonged to an independent transportation contractor. The Commission found the record unclear as to whether the…
John Deere Foundry, a Division of Deere Company; Bunge Corporation
Selective settlement approval rejected
In two cases, the judge approved selected settlement terms while rejecting non-admission provisions and entering factual findings without a hearing. The Commission held that it may review settlements for consistency with the Act but may not rewrite them through selective approval. It also held that…
Ladish Co. Tri-Clover Division
Post-1972 installations must comply with the full electrical code
Ladish installed electrical equipment in 1976 without enough access and working space for safe operation and maintenance. It admitted that the condition violated section 110-16(a) of the 1971 National Electrical Code but disputed whether OSHA had incorporated that provision. The Commission held…
Texaco, Inc.
Explosion-proof lamp citation remanded for fuller analysis
A mechanic used an unapproved portable lamp and drop cord in a truck-maintenance bay containing a classified hazardous area near the floor. The judge vacated the citation because the Secretary did not prove that the lamp itself entered that eighteen-inch zone. The Secretary offered additional…
Bethlehem Steel Corporation
Five shipyard violations reclassified as repeated
Bethlehem Steel was cited at its Beaumont shipyard for an uninterrupted fixed ladder without required platforms, flexible electrical cords run through a wall opening, unguarded deck openings, poor housekeeping, and a suspended load passing over an employee. The judge affirmed the conditions but…
Westinghouse Broadcasting Co., Inc. d/b/a WBZ TV Group Westinghouse Broadcasting
Locked-door and exit-sign violations affirmed
OSHA cited conditions at Westinghouse's Boston television and radio station, including wet newsroom housekeeping, alcohol storage, locked or obstructed doors, and an unmarked FM-studio exit. The Commission affirmed vacatur of the newsroom item because it duplicated an uncontested wet-floor…
Wean-Pori, Inc.
Commission affirms withdrawal of an electrical-grounding citation after the union agreed it had been heard
Wean-Pori, Inc. was issued a serious citation on May 10, 1978 alleging an electrical-grounding violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1910.309(a) (incorporating the National Electrical Code), with a proposed penalty of $420. The company timely contested, and the United Steelworkers local elected party status as…
Kast Metals Corp.
Welding and electrical violations affirmed
Kast Metals challenged welding and electrical citations, the inspection date, the lack of a closing conference, and the timing of the citations. The Commission held that the company waived its reasonable-promptness defense by raising it only after the hearing. It also held that failure to conduct a…
Welsh Farms Ice Cream, Inc.
Exposed-wiring citation vacated
OSHA found an uncovered basement junction box with exposed 110-volt wires at a Welsh Farms restaurant. An independent electrical contractor had recently worked in the area and apparently failed to replace the cover. The judge found that employees had access to the electrical hazard but that Welsh…
Braswell Motor Freight Lines, Inc.
Commission distinguishes recurring violations from failure to abate
Braswell Motor Freight Lines operated a freight terminal that OSHA reinspected after several uncontested citations became final orders. The Commission affirmed a failure to abate the missing stair handrail but assessed no penalty because the company made substantial good-faith efforts and the…
General Electric Company, Inc.
Commission affirms two violations and vacates two others
OSHA cited General Electric after inspecting its Schenectady, New York, worksite. The Commission vacated a machine-guarding citation because guards and a spacer protected the radiac cutoff machine's point of operation, and it also left an electrical citation vacated. It affirmed a general duty…
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…
Northern States Power Company
Coal-conveyor electrical violations fell outside the utility exemption
Northern States Power operated a coal-fired electric generating plant in South Dakota. OSHA cited a pump motor and terminal box used to spray antifreeze on a coal conveyor because the equipment was not dust-ignition-proof for the combustible-dust location. The company admitted the conditions…
Yosemite Park and Curry Co.
Electrical and repeat housekeeping violations affirmed
An inspection of Yosemite Park and Curry's transportation garage produced six contested items involving a roof leak, an extension cord, gasoline cans, housekeeping, tire storage, and a stair-landing obstruction. The judge affirmed the defective extension-cord item because untagged equipment stored…
Allied Equipment Company
Numerous shop violations affirmed with a one-cent total penalty
Allied Equipment manufactured horse and stock trailers and repaired truck bodies and frames with five employees. The judge affirmed numerous nonserious violations involving flammable-liquid storage, fire extinguishers, machine and power-transmission guarding, grinder adjustments, a portable saw…
Central Meat Company
Exit, machine-guarding, and electrical violations affirmed
Central Meat Company operated a small meat-processing plant where an inspection found a slippery floor, locked rear doors, inadequately guarded bandsaws, and several electrical hazards. The judge vacated the housekeeping item because the company devoted substantial effort to continuous cleaning and…
The House of Glass
Seven equipment and electrical items affirmed
The House of Glass operated a retail glass and glazing business in Great Falls, Montana. OSHA cited conditions involving a discharged fire extinguisher, a radial saw, an unguarded pulley, blocked electrical equipment, and three ungrounded appliances or machines. The Commission found the record…
Robert W. Blanchette, Richard C. Bond & John H. McArthur, Trustees of Penn Central Transportation Co.
Five facility violations affirmed and three vacated
OSHA inspected Penn Central’s engineering department at Boston’s South Station while the railroad was in bankruptcy reorganization. The judge added the three bankruptcy trustees as respondents because they controlled the railroad’s property, knew of the case from the beginning, and actively…
Kennedy Houseboats, Inc.
Machine-guarding citation affirmed without penalties
Kennedy Houseboats contested point-of-operation guarding allegations involving double-angle saws, a Pexto shear, and the shear and punch on a Dvorak Iron Worker, while several other electrical and machine-guarding items remained contested only as to penalty. The judge found that employees’ hands…
Mercury National Life Insurance Co.
Late contest dismissed and OSHA coverage upheld
Mercury National Life challenged OSHA jurisdiction after being cited for poster, recordkeeping, exit, and electrical conditions at its Oklahoma office. Although almost all policyholders, agents, employees, income, and shareholders were in Oklahoma, the company used out-of-state equipment and…
Alpha Poster Service, Inc.
Most failure-to-abate and liquid-handling items upheld
Alpha Poster Service operated a small silk-screen printing business that OSHA reinspected after an earlier citation became final. The judge affirmed ten failure-to-abate items at $45 each, vacated two others, and affirmed two housekeeping and exit-obstruction violations as nonserious at $115 each…
Stephenson Enterprises, Inc.
Eight plant-safety items reinstated
Stephenson Enterprises manufactured men's and boys' pants at a Georgia plant cited for several housekeeping, fire-protection, electrical, storage, machine-guarding, and sewing-machine conditions. The judge vacated the contested items after finding OSHA's evidence too conclusory. The Commission held…
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…
George T. Gerhardt Company, Inc.
Failure-to-correct penalties reduced to $300
George T. Gerhardt Company was a small sheet-metal manufacturer cited for unguarded belts and pulleys, unguarded machinery, and a spliced electrical cord. It did not contest the original citation, and a reinspection found the three conditions had not been corrected within the stated abatement…
Leader Evaporator, Inc.
Incorporated electrical requirements upheld
Leader Evaporator manufactured maple-sugar equipment and admitted that its plant wiring and portable electric tools were not grounded. It argued that the electrical standards were invalid because they incorporated National Electrical Code provisions instead of printing the full requirements in the…
American Bag Co., Inc.
Failure-to-abate penalties reduced
American Bag was a 17-employee leather bag manufacturer in Puerto Rico. After the company did not contest an initial citation, OSHA reinspected and alleged that multiple violations had not been corrected, that the citation had not been posted, and that an injury log had not been maintained. 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…
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…
River Terminal Railway Co.
Tower egress and electrical citations affirmed
River Terminal Railway was cited at its Cleveland facilities for lacking two remote means of egress from a bridge tower and for unguarded electrical equipment without warning signs. The railroad argued that Federal Railroad Administration authority displaced OSHA jurisdiction over the work. The…
Johnson Brothers Planing Mill, Inc.
Millwork machine-guarding citations affirmed
Johnson Brothers manufactured wood products using radial and table saws, sanding equipment, belt-driven machinery, and electrical equipment with several cited guarding or grounding deficiencies. The serious citation involved unguarded lower portions of two radial-saw blades and an unguarded…
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company
Railroad exemption and bankruptcy defenses rejected
OSHA cited the railroad after inspections at its Kansas City and Joliet workplaces, and the company argued that Department of Transportation authority displaced OSHA jurisdiction and that a bankruptcy injunction barred the proceedings. The Commission held that the statutory exemption for another…
Worcester Pressed Steel Company
Duplicate aisle item vacated, higher penalties sustained
Worcester Pressed Steel Company operated a large metal-stamping plant cited for 40 nonserious safety violations. The cited conditions included poor housekeeping and floors, obstructed and unmarked aisles, missing exit signs and eye protection, forklift hazards, inadequate machine guarding, and…
Midwest By Products, Inc.
First-aid and LP-gas items reinstated, ladder item vacated
OSHA cited hazards at Midwest By Products' rendering plant, including unguarded screw conveyors, defective ladders, inadequate first-aid preparation, an unsafe grinder, electrical defects, and an unprotected propane tank. The company admitted most of the nonserious violations and later acknowledged…
Donovan's Blacktop, Inc.
Settlement affirms citations and reduces penalties
Donovan's Blacktop faced citations from inspections of its garage and two Massachusetts construction sites. The cited conditions included poor housekeeping, improper electrical grounding, an unsupported trench, missing eye protection, and gasoline carried in an unapproved container. The parties…
Allstate Trailer Sales, Inc.
Penalties reassessed after citations became final
Allstate Trailer Sales manufactured recreational vehicles at a Seattle plant. OSHA issued a serious citation involving unguarded saws and an eleven-item nonserious citation covering posting, recordkeeping, machine guarding, electrical grounding, and eye protection. Allstate's timely notice…
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…
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…
Pyropak Manufacturing, Inc.
One abatement extension approved and three dismissed as late
Pyropak Manufacturing sought additional time to correct four nonserious citation items involving machinery and electrical conditions. The judge found the petition timely only for item 5 and extended that item's deadline to January 6, 1975. He dismissed the extension requests for items 6, 7, and 8…
Western Metal Decorating Company
Stairway item reinstated and respiratory-protection item vacated
Western Metal Decorating Company decorated flat sheets of tin and steel using coating, printing, and baking lines. OSHA issued a 25-item citation covering conditions that included housekeeping, powered industrial trucks, flammable liquids, machinery, electrical equipment, employee eating areas, and…
Charles A. Davison & Margaret S. Davison, dba Davison Wood Products
Machine-guarding items affirmed without penalties
OSHA cited a small woodworking business for unguarded sanding machines, a jointer, saw belts and pulleys, and a rip saw, along with alleged electrical, spray-booth ventilation, and first-aid violations. The judge affirmed the four machine-guarding items without penalties. He vacated the electrical…
Southern Railway Company
Nine repair-shop items affirmed
OSHA cited ten conditions at Southern Railway's Spartanburg maintenance and repair facility, including spray-area lighting, welding-fume exposure, sanitation, fixed ladders, scaffolds, and welding-screen protection. The Commission rejected the railroad's claim that Department of Transportation…
Union Pacific Railroad Company
Five repair-shop items affirmed
OSHA cited eight conditions in Union Pacific's Cheyenne machine and wheel shops. The Commission affirmed five items involving missing crane load markings, uncaged access ladders, absent crane inspections, uninspected fire extinguishers, and missing extinguisher maintenance tags, with $295 in…
Kemmerlin Meats, Inc.
Seventeen plant violations affirmed with $235 penalties
Kemmerlin Meats admitted 17 violations at its South Carolina meatpacking plant involving compressed-gas cylinders, machine guarding, electrical wiring and grounding, housekeeping, ladders, knives, sanitation, and equipment labeling. Penalties were proposed for six items, including raw wires…
Muriel Manufacturing Company
Penalties for garment-shop violations affirmed
Muriel Manufacturing Company operated a contract garment-sewing shop where OSHA cited housekeeping, stairway, exit, fire-extinguisher, machine-guarding, electrical, posting, and recordkeeping conditions. The employer admitted 12 nonserious violations, while two abrasive-wheel items were vacated by…
Lovell Clay Products Company
Unstable brick-storage item reinstated
Lovell Clay Products mined clay and manufactured bricks and tile at its Billings plant. One citation item described unstable brick storage but mistakenly identified the housekeeping subsection, while the complaint identified the secure-storage subsection without changing the underlying facts. The…
Kay-Townes, Inc.
Manufacturing violations and penalties affirmed
Kay-Townes manufactured television antennas and masts at a plant where OSHA cited numerous machine-guarding, electrical, exit-marking, and housekeeping conditions. The Secretary withdrew seven point-of-operation items at the hearing. The judge affirmed the remaining 18 nonserious violations…
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…
Johnson Brothers Sawmill
Late abatement extension granted for good cause
Johnson Brothers Sawmill received 18 citation items and sought more time to complete sanitation and electrical work after correcting the other 13. The employer had borrowed $6,500 through the Small Business Administration for abatement and showed that weather, plumber availability, and delayed…
Frohlick Crane Service
Leased-crane violation and citation items affirmed
Frohlick Crane Service leased a crane and operator to an elevator subcontractor at a construction site. The crane contacted an uninsulated 7,620-volt power line, and a laborer employed by another company was electrocuted. The Commission held that the operator remained Frohlick's employee because…
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…
Smoke-Craft, Inc.
Sausage-cutting PPE citation vacated
Smoke-Craft manufactured beef jerky and sausage and used a hand-held reciprocating saw to cut long sausages. An employee held the sausage with a bare hand about one to one-and-a-half inches from the blade during end cuts. The Commission acknowledged a cutting hazard but vacated the…
Swan Lake Moulding Co.
Seven violations and $265 penalty affirmed
Swan Lake Moulding operated a cabinet shop and retail building-materials yard where OSHA cited electrical, machine-guarding, housekeeping, and floor hazards. The company contested the penalties for seven items but did not dispute the cited conditions. The judge affirmed those seven violations 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.