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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Raytheon Constructors, Inc., and its successors
Medical, eye-protection, electrical, and fall items are vacated
Raytheon was building a chemical-weapons disposal incinerator at the Umatilla Army Chemical Depot in Oregon. After an unknown chemical exposure sickened workers, OSHA cited the company for inadequate access to medical advice, but the judge found that qualified emergency medical technicians were…
Fluidics, Inc.
Mixed construction ruling assesses $13,600
Fluidics performed mechanical-system renovations at a Philadelphia public-housing project with unusually difficult site-security conditions. The judge affirmed serious violations involving unsecured and improperly separated compressed-gas cylinders, missing GFCI protection, exposed energized…
Snyder Well Servicing, Inc.
Respirator item affirmed and other well-site items vacated
Snyder used a mobile service rig to swab a newly drilled Texas oil well, removing material from the well bore. The Commission held that swabbing had not been shown to be construction work, so construction standards did not apply. It nevertheless affirmed a serious general-industry respiratory…
George J. Igel & Co., Inc.
Defective fire extinguisher and inadequate trench shoring both upheld
This pipe-laying contractor was inspected at a trench worksite and cited for two things: a portable fire extinguisher in a backhoe cab whose gauge showed it needed recharging (nonserious, 29 C.F.R. § 1926.150(c)(1)(viii)) and inadequate shoring in a trench 7 to 13 feet deep (serious, 29 C.F.R. §…
T. J. Service Company
Ladder penalty cut and extinguisher citation reinstated
T. J. Service operated an oil-well workover rig whose derrick man climbed an unprotected fixed ladder to a work platform about 44 feet above the ground several times each day. The Commission affirmed a serious violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.450(a)(5) because the ladder lacked a cage, offset…
Rust Engineering Company; Allegheny Industrial Electric Company
Scaffold access item reduced to de minimis
A Rust Engineering employee climbed down a 15-foot scaffold using its end-frame bars instead of a separate access ladder. The Commission agreed that the bars were not equivalent to a proper ladder because their spacing varied from 19 to 21 inches and the record did not show slip-resistant…
Clasten Vaughn, dba Vaughn Roofing Co.
Roof-edge protection citation reinstated
Vaughn Roofing employees worked as close as 18 inches from the edge of an approximately 80-foot-high roof without safety belts, lanyards, or other fall protection. The Commission reinstated the serious personal-protective-equipment citation because the employer accepted that fall protection was…
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.