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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Stearns-Roger, Inc.
Serious fall-protection violation affirmed after delayed citation
Stearns-Roger had 10 to 25 ironworkers performing bolting work on narrow steel beams 94 to 120 feet above the ground. Employees tied off while stationary but often walked between connection points without fall protection. The judge vacated the citation because OSHA issued it 139 days after the…
Universal Roofing & Sheet Metal Co.
Roof-edge PPE citation remanded under current precedent
OSHA cited Universal Roofing after an employee worked near a roof edge without personal fall protection. The judge vacated the citation, reasoning that the roof was safer than a temporary floor allowed by the safety-net rule and that a sloped-roof provision displaced the general PPE standard. The…
Jensen Construction Company
Serious bridge fall-protection violation affirmed
Jensen Construction Company was building a bridge over the Kansas River when OSHA observed its superintendent walking on a steel girder about 50 feet above the ground without fall protection. The Commission upheld a serious violation of the personal protective equipment standard and rejected…
Constructora Maza, Inc.
Safety-belt violation reclassified as willful-serious
Constructora Maza, Inc. employees worked near an unguarded wall opening on the sixteenth floor without safety belts or other protective equipment. The Commission allowed OSHA to amend the alleged violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a) from repeated to willful because the standard, facts, and means of…
Charles Vrana & Son Construction Company
Fatal roof-fall violations affirmed
Vrana employees repaired a tornado-damaged metal roof with loose sheets and open areas up to about 32 feet above ground. An apprentice stepped on an unsecured sheet and fell through the roof to his death. The judge found that workers received only general directions to remove debris and install…
Cornell & Co., Inc.
Safety-belt citation affirmed for 100-foot steel work
Cornell employees bolted steel on a flare derrick 100 feet above ground without tying off their safety belts, and no floor or net would break a fall. Before the hearing, OSHA replaced inapplicable temporary-floor and safety-net allegations with a charge under the personal-protective-equipment and…
Chicago Bridge and Iron Company
Fall-protection and scaffold items affirmed
Two employees worked 19 and 29 feet above ground on penetration tubes and unsecured planks without tying off, with exposed reinforcing steel below. The Commission affirmed the serious personal-protective-equipment violation and an increased $850 penalty because supervisors could have discovered the…
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.