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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Paramount Advanced Wireless, LLC
$19,276.65 EAJA award granted
Paramount prevailed after a fall-protection citation arising from a fatal tower accident was vacated, then sought fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act. The judge found the Secretary's litigation position was not substantially justified because it rested on a readily correctable…
Pegasus Tower
Tower fall violations affirmed with grouped PPE penalty
Pegasus Tower employees erected a television tower and worked hundreds of feet above the ground. OSHA cited hazards involving employees riding a dual-drum hoist line, inadequate fall-protection training, and failure to maintain continuous fall protection while moving on the tower. The Commission…
Hackensack Steel Corp.
Four steel-erection violations affirmed
Hackensack Steel was erecting structural steel at a medical-center project when two connectors worked as high as 43 feet without exterior or interior fall protection and without hardhats. Unprotected reinforcing steel also created an impalement hazard below them. The Commission rejected…
C.T. Taylor Company Inc., & Esprit Constructors, Inc.
Related companies treated as a single employer
Two ironworkers fell 39 feet to their deaths after a foreman placed a 5,000-pound bundle of decking on unsecured and unbridged bar joists without providing fall protection. The Commission treated C.T. Taylor and Esprit as a single employer for this project because they shared ownership, management…
CB&I Constructors, Inc.
Gas-cylinder item withdrawn and fall item corrected to serious
The Commission reviewed a decision involving access, fall-protection, scaffold-platform, ladder, and compressed-gas-cylinder conditions during construction of a water tower. The Secretary withdrew the compressed-gas-cylinder item, and the Commission granted that withdrawal. It also corrected the…
C&C Erecting, Inc.
Settlement resolved steel-erection citations with no penalty
The case involved fall-protection training, aerial-lift, roof-opening, and steel-erection allegations at a Wisconsin construction site. While the matter was under Commission review, the parties settled all outstanding issues. One training instance, two aerial-lift items, and the alleged willful…
T.C. Erectors, Inc.
Fall-protection citation affirmed after a 28-foot roof fall on an untiered building
T.C. Erectors is a small steel erection contractor that was a subcontractor building a grocery store in Columbus, Ohio. An employee dragging roof decking fell 28 feet to the interior of the building and suffered fractures in both wrists and a foot plus a head injury; he was wearing a safety belt…
Pro Set Erectors, and its successors
Fall-protection violation affirmed and penalty reduced
At a construction site in Idaho, a Pro Set foreman unhooked his lanyard and climbed over the rail of an aerial-lift basket onto a stairway about 30 feet above the ground. The judge held that the lift basket was not an adequate catch platform because it did not reliably protect an employee climbing…
A. J. McNulty & Company, Inc.
Mixed ruling on fall protection during precast concrete erection
A. J. McNulty & Company was erecting a precast concrete parking garage in White Plains, New York, when OSHA cited numerous fall-protection and other safety violations. The Commission rejected McNulty's request to exclude inspection evidence, finding that OSHA substantially honored the company's…
Manganas Painting Co.
Commission affirms bridge fall violations and raises repeated-violation penalties
Manganas Painting was sandblasting and repainting the Jeremiah Morrow Bridge near Cincinnati, Ohio. OSHA cited the company after employees used an unguarded painter's pick and clipped safety-belt lanyards to beam openings in a way that could let the hooks disengage. The Commission held that the…
Mac Construction
Fall-protection case settled for $1,100
Mac Construction performed construction work in Wisconsin. OSHA cited the company for inadequate jobsite inspections, insufficient safety training, employees working more than 25 feet above a lower surface without fall protection, and employees using aerial lifts without personal fall-arrest…
Hi-Tech Builders, Inc.
Willful steel-erection fall violations affirmed for $60,000
Hi-Tech Builders erected structural steel at the Guam International Airport while employees repeatedly worked without tying off and without temporary floors or nets below them. OSHA videotaped the conduct from a public parking lot, and Judge Nancy J. Spies rejected Hi-Tech's challenge because the…
George Campbell Painting Corporation
Bridge fall violation reduced from willful to serious
A Campbell painter fell 35 feet from the Queensboro Bridge while maneuvering a heavy spray pump through a wall opening without tying off. The Commission allowed the Secretary's post-hearing amendment from guardrail standards to the fall-protection standard at § 1926.105(a) because Campbell had made…
Fleming Construction, Inc.
Construction-manager citations vacated for lack of supervisory control
Fleming Construction provided construction-management services for a bank project in Durango, Colorado, where an employee of the steel contractor fell about 25 feet. OSHA cited Fleming for inadequate safety instruction and failure to provide fall protection under construction standards. The…
Metro Steel Construction Co.
Two fall-protection items vacated for insufficient proof
Metro Steel erected structural steel for a shopping mall in Westbury, New York. OSHA alleged two instances in which employees walked exterior beams about 40 feet above the ground without fall protection. For the first item, the Commission found critical ambiguity because Metro's witnesses testified…
Ruscilli Construction Co., Inc.
Steel-erection citation split and penalties reduced on reconsideration
Ruscilli Construction erected steel for a large warehouse project in Ohio. OSHA issued seven serious citation items involving jobsite inspections, fall protection, compressed-air hoses, and aerial lifts. Judge Ken S. Welsch affirmed the inspection-program item because the designated competent…
Armstrong Steel Erectors, Inc.
Incomplete bridge fall protection supported repeated violation
Armstrong Steel Erectors was constructing a bridge when an ironworker died after falling about 90 feet. The company required 100 percent tie-off but provided only one lanyard per worker and left gaps in its lifeline system, so workers could not remain tied off while moving through several areas…
Metal Buildings of Wisconsin, Inc.
Willful fall-protection citation reduced to serious
Metal Buildings of Wisconsin employees installed steel decking about 37 feet above the ground without nets, safety lines, belts, or other fall protection, and one worker died after falling through a gap. The company used a safety monitor because it considered nets a fire hazard and other methods…
Medical Construction Group
General contractor held responsible for subcontractor's fall hazard
Medical Construction Group (MCG) was the general contractor building an addition at a medical center in Twin Falls, Idaho. During an April 1997 inspection, an OSHA compliance officer saw ironworkers from a subcontractor, R&L Construction, connecting steel about 29 to 30 feet up without any fall…
Micron Construction, Inc.
Controlling contractor cleared of a subcontractor's fall violations for lack of knowledge
Micron Construction, Inc. was the construction manager on a Meridian, Idaho project. A January 1997 OSHA inspection caught employees of its steel subcontractor, Hansen & Rice, in three fall-protection lapses: one worker tied his lanyard to another worker's retractable lifeline about 40 feet up, one…
Williams & Sons Erectors, LLC
Fall protection and training violations affirmed
Williams & Sons Erectors performed steel erection at a three-story construction site in New York. OSHA observed one ironworker welding on a second-level beam and another sitting on a roof-level column without fall protection. The judge credited the compliance officer's testimony that the employees…
Monadnock Erectors, Inc.
Steel-erection safety-net citation affirmed from the bench
Monadnock Erectors, Inc., a New Hampshire steel erector, was cited for a single serious violation after employees erected steel more than 30 feet above the ground without safety nets. The cited standard requires safety nets when work is more than 25 feet up and ladders, scaffolds, catch platforms…
Bear Erectors, Inc.
Steel-erection fall-protection and training citations all affirmed, $12,000 penalty
Bear Erectors was a steel-erection subcontractor working on an addition to and demolition at an adult nursing facility in Rochester, New York. An OSHA officer driving past saw workers on the high steel without fall protection, videotaped the site, and inspected. OSHA issued a serious citation with…
R. P. Carbone Construction Co.
General contractor liable for subcontractor's exposed fall hazard
R. P. Carbone Construction Company was the general contractor on a recreation-center project in Cleveland, Ohio, and subcontracted the steel erection to CommSteel. During a July 1996 inspection prompted by a complaint, an OSHA compliance officer saw two CommSteel ironworkers installing bridging…
Anderson Excavating and Wrecking Company
Demolition fall violation found willful
Three employees manually demolished a bank vault about 35 feet above the ground without safety belts, nets, or other fall protection. The Commission found Anderson plainly indifferent because it provided only vague warnings not to fall, gave inadequate hazard training, and did not have…
Gem Industrial, Inc.
Fall item affirmed as serious, not repeated
Three GEM ironworkers performed detailing work on beams about 31 feet above the ground without fall protection. The Commission found that GEM had a communicated tie-off rule, but its repeated oral warnings were ineffective, its progressive discipline was not followed, and its monitoring was…
D. A. Collins Constr. Co., Inc.
Foreman's tie-off violations defeated misconduct defense
Collins carpenters stripped bridge formwork from a temporary platform 34 feet above the ground. A carpenter fell from the bridge and died, and OSHA cited the company for fall-protection violations. Two carpenters routinely crossed the unguarded platform without tying off, and their foreman observed…
Minelli Construction Company, Inc.
Mixed ruling on bridge rehabilitation safety citations
Minelli Construction Company was a subcontractor performing rehabilitation work on a New York Thruway bridge. OSHA cited the company for alleged hazards involving eye and face protection, hazard communication, fall protection, electrical equipment, suspended scaffolds, access, and gasoline storage…
Northwest Erectors, Inc.
Metal decking citation vacated
Northwest Erectors installed metal roof decking at a construction site in Pennsylvania. The company settled a fall-protection citation under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.105(a) for a $1,500 penalty. The remaining citation alleged that employees walked on decking that was not secured against movement under 29…
E & R Erectors, Inc.
Steel-erection fall-protection and crane items affirmed against E & R, related companies dismissed, $3,000
OSHA inspected the steel erection at the ASTM International Headquarters construction site in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and cited E & R Erectors, Inc. E & R claimed it was not on the site that day, so the Secretary amended the complaint to add two related companies, Samuel Grossi and Sons…
Precast Services, Inc.
Commission reverses the judge and affirms a fall-protection citation, rejecting the unpreventable-employee-misconduct defense
Precast Services installs precast concrete panels. During a 1993 job in Mentor, Ohio, OSHA saw a journeyman ironworker straddling the top of a 40-foot precast panel with no fall protection, and cited the company for failing to require personal protective equipment. Precast argued it should not be…
Empire Steel, Inc.
Commission dismisses the case after the parties jointly withdraw the direction for review
This case arose from a fatal fall at a school re-roofing project in Spring, Texas, where a roofing worker fell about 27 feet through a roof opening to the cafeteria floor below. OSHA cited Empire Steel, Inc., but at the hearing the evidence showed the workers were actually leased and supervised by…
Empire Steel, Inc.
Commission approves $1,000 settlement with employee-leasing company
The underlying case arose after an employee fell through an opening during a Texas school re-roofing project and sustained fatal injuries. The administrative law judge had substituted employee-leasing company Corporate Compensation and Safety, Inc. for the originally cited Empire Steel, Inc. and…
RGM Construction Company
Four bridge-safety items affirmed and two vacated
RGM Construction Company was widening a Texas bridge when OSHA cited fall-protection and water-safety conditions. The Commission affirmed a serious fall-protection item because tying a lanyard to an unsecured work platform could pull the platform down with a falling employee. It also affirmed items…
John H. Quinlan, d/b/a Quinlan Enterprises
Crane and fall-protection items affirmed
Quinlan Enterprises was erecting steel for a Georgia retail building when OSHA observed employees installing roof decking more than 36 feet above the ground without fall protection. The Commission affirmed the serious fall-protection item because the steel-erection rules did not displace the…
Thor Construction
Fall-protection and tagline violations affirmed
Thor Construction was cited for nine serious violations during a structural-steel construction project. Before the hearing, the parties settled seven items by vacating three, reclassifying four as other than serious, and agreeing to $3,000 in penalties. The judge found that several employees worked…
Ruhlin Co.
EAJA expense award reduced to $120.08
Ruhlin Company sought fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act after prevailing on two construction citation items. The Commission held that reasonable and necessary attorney travel expenses customarily charged to a client are recoverable, so it allowed $57.04 for mileage and…
Texas A.C.A., Inc.
Commission affirms vacatur of all scaffold citations because a diligent contractor did not know of conditions other trades kept disturbing
Texas A.C.A., Inc. was the plastering contractor on a four-story hospital construction project in Bedford, Texas. Texas erected the tubular welded frame scaffolding around the building, but other contractors used it too and frequently moved or removed the planks without telling Texas, so Texas had…
Dynamic Painting Corp.
Three fall and water-safety items vacated, ring-buoy item affirmed
Dynamic Painting employees worked on a bridge and suspended scaffold above water at a Bay Shore, New York, site. The judge vacated the fall-protection item because the compliance officer gave inconsistent testimony about when the photographs were taken, where the employee was located, and whether…
E & R Erectors, Inc.
Serious fall-protection violation affirmed, penalty reduced to $1,500
E & R Erectors was the structural-steel subcontractor for a Philadelphia warehouse project where employees laid roof decking roughly 30 feet above the ground without safety belts or nets. Employee Raymond Connors fell from the roof structure and suffered serious injuries. Although OSHA had not…
Armstrong Steel Erectors, Inc.
Bridge steel-erection fall-protection violation affirmed serious, $2,500
Armstrong Steel Erectors was erecting steel on an I-71 bridge overpass in Cleveland, Ohio, when OSHA inspected in August 1993 and cited it for a serious fall-protection violation. Compliance officers videotaped ironworkers moving across unguarded girders more than 25 feet up without using the…
Interstate Erectors, Inc.
Two willful fall-protection citations affirmed against a steel erector
Interstate Erectors was a small steel erection company putting up skeleton steel for a building in Idaho Falls, Idaho. During a February 1993 inspection, an OSHA compliance officer photographed and videotaped ironworkers moving across beams 42 feet up without being tied off, both on exterior beams…
American Bridge/Lashcon, J.V.
Fall protection and cylinder-storage violations affirmed
American Bridge/Lashcon employees repeatedly crossed a 13-inch-wide beam 28 feet above the ground while wearing safety belts that were not tied off. The Commission held that protection was required for this discrete crossing task even though employees tied off while performing other work. It also…
The Ruhlin Company
Bridge fall-protection and inspection items vacated, unguarded rebar affirmed
Ruhlin Company was the general contractor building the South Avenue bridge in Youngstown, Ohio. After a 1993 inspection, OSHA cited Ruhlin for three items tied to the work of its steel subcontractor: no fall protection for ironworkers walking the girders, a failure to run frequent and regular…
National Engineering and Contracting, Inc.
Bridge fall-protection violations affirmed
National was the general contractor and Tri-State its steel-erection subcontractor on rehabilitation of Cleveland's Main Avenue Bridge. A Tri-State foreman fell 80 feet and died when a deck pan dropped during a nonroutine operation; a second ironworker survived by grabbing a structural member. The…
Spancrete Northeast, Inc.
Commission rejects greater-hazard defense for safety nets
Spancrete Northeast installed precast concrete planks for a 10-story hotel addition in Uniondale, New York. OSHA cited the company because three employees worked near the seventh-floor perimeter without safety nets or other fall protection while directing a crane and positioning 5,400-pound planks…
Southern Forming, Inc.
Broad safety violations affirmed at $69,150
Southern Forming, also known as Suncrete Construction, performed concrete formwork at construction sites in Sunny Isles and Delray Beach, Florida. At the Sunny Isles site, an employee fell to his death from a stairway, and OSHA's investigation identified numerous fall-protection, stairway…
Anderson Excavating & Wrecking Co.
Bridge fall and hard-hat violations affirmed
Anderson Excavating & Wrecking was the demolition contractor removing the old Talmadge Bridge over the Savannah River. The ALJ held that OSHA's construction standards applied because the demolition was part of the larger bridge-replacement project and used construction trades and methods. Employees…
Mutual Erectors Inc.
Three safety violations affirmed for $2,300
Mutual Erectors was a small steel-erection contractor building the steel frame for a school addition. The ALJ vacated a general-industry sling-inspection item because the construction rigging standard more specifically covered the condition and the Secretary did not prove a missed inspection. She…
Cornell and Company, Inc.
Withdrawal leaves serious fall-protection violation final
Cornell and Company performed structural steel work while dismantling part of a coker unit at Mobil's Paulsboro Refinery in New Jersey. OSHA observed two employees walking beams about 80 to 90 feet above lower surfaces without safety nets, lifelines, or other fall protection. The ALJ accepted that…
Peterson Brothers Steel Erection Company
Connector fall violation affirmed, penalty reduced
A connector erecting structural steel for an Austin office building was fatally injured after a suspended beam knocked him from a perimeter beam about 70 feet above ground. Peterson Brothers used temporary floors for interior fall protection and safety belts for bolters, but its connectors had no…
State Sheet Metal Company, Inc.
Roof-decking fall violations affirmed
State Sheet Metal employees installed metal roof decking on two one-story New Jersey warehouses at heights of approximately 27 and 32 feet without fall protection. The Commission held that the decking being installed did not itself satisfy the temporary-floor option because it did not protect…
Falcon Steel Company, Inc.
High-rise fall violations affirmed for $16,000
Falcon Steel erected structural steel for a 60-story Philadelphia high-rise and was cited for several fall hazards. The Commission affirmed a willful violation for using a crane-suspended man basket to carry employees to upper floors when elevators and ladders provided a conventional alternative…
Potomac Iron Works, Inc.
Roof-edge fall protection violation affirmed
Potomac Iron Works performed steel erection work on a building in Washington, D.C. OSHA observed an employee signaling a crane at the roof edge about 68 feet above the ground without effective fall protection. The employee wore a safety belt and lanyard but was not tied off, and his superintendent…
Daak Corporation
Default order remanded for good-cause determination
Daak Corporation did not appear for its scheduled hearing, and the ALJ granted the Secretary a default judgment. After hearing the Secretary's evidence, the judge affirmed 14 construction citations and assessed $7,200 in total penalties. Daak's vice president then petitioned for review and made…
R & R Builders, Inc.
Safety-belt violation remains willful
R & R Builders was a drywall subcontractor cited for safety-program, training, safety-belt, guardrail, and ground-fault protection violations at a condominium project. The Commission affirmed the safety-program, training, safety-belt, and guardrail items, but reduced three of them from willful to a…
Patent Scaffolding Co.
Scaffold fall-protection citation withdrawn and case dismissed
The underlying case concerned an employee dismantling scaffolding from a partially guarded platform about 110 feet above the ground without a safety belt or safety net. The Secretary alleged alternative violations under the safety-net and scaffold-guardrail standards. The ALJ affirmed the…
Bratton Corporation
Untied steel erectors exposed to exterior fall hazard
Bratton employees welding bar joists on perimeter beams were exposed to exterior falls of about 28 to 33 feet. They wore safety belts but were not tied off, and Bratton left that decision to each employee. The Commission held that the steel erection temporary-flooring standard addressed interior…
Falcon Steel Company, Inc.
Economic-infeasibility interlocutory review withdrawn
Falcon Steel sought interlocutory review after the ALJ denied discovery supporting an industry-wide economic-infeasibility defense to perimeter safety-net citations. The Commission initially granted review and partially stayed the hearing on the 29 C.F.R. § 1926.105(a) items. Four days later, both…
Century Steel Erectors, Inc.
Court remand required proof that safety belts were practical
Century Steel employees were dismantling a bridge-work scaffold when an employee fell about 40 feet while tack welds were being cut. An ALJ found a serious fall-protection violation because employees were not tied off and assessed $1,000 for that item. The D.C. Circuit reversed, holding that 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.