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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Jesse Remodeling, LLC
Willful scaffold item and three serious items affirmed
Jesse Remodeling employees worked on a 13-foot-high scaffold while filling concrete block cells at a restaurant construction site. The scaffold lacked guardrails, two employees worked from its frame and cross braces, and employees used cross braces and uprights to descend. A concrete Grout Hog…
R.G. Bigelow Electrical Company, Inc.
Electrical and aerial-lift violations affirmed
A Bigelow electrician was assigned to tighten a connection on an energized 480-volt circuit from an aerial lift at a Connecticut printing company. The supervisor rejected the employee's suggestion to de-energize the box and did not provide insulated tools, electrical protective equipment, or…
New York State Electric & Gas Corp.
PPE citations vacated because employer knowledge was not proved
New York State Electric & Gas Corporation sent a two-person crew to install residential gas service in Binghamton, New York. An OSHA compliance officer saw one crew member operating a jackhammer without eye protection and later determined that he also lacked protective footwear, although both forms…
B & B Plumbing, Inc.
Trench violations reduced from willful to serious
B & B Plumbing was installing sanitation plumbing at a school on the White Mountain Apache reservation in Arizona. Employees worked in a trench with vertical sides that reached about eight feet deep and had no protective system or adequate means of egress; an employee died in a cave-in. The judge…
Kenny Niles, d/b/a Kenny Niles Construction & Trucking Company
Business closure did not moot OSHA penalties
OSHA cited Kenny Niles for two willful and nine serious violations after a trench collapse injured an employee. The ALJ dismissed the case as moot after Niles closed his excavation and trucking businesses, sold equipment, and no longer employed anyone. Reconsidering its prior precedent, the…
Andrew Catapano Enterprises, Inc.
Separate trench citations largely upheld
OSHA issued nine sets of citations covering 98 alleged violations at separate water-main trench worksites along Eighth Avenue in New York City. The Commission held that the Secretary could inspect and cite the separate worksites independently because correcting a condition in one trench did not…
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…
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…
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…
McCain Foods, Inc.
Willful asbestos violations and $165,000 in penalties affirmed
McCain Foods operated a food-processing plant in Easton, Maine, while a major renovation project removed old piping and other material containing asbestos. The judge found that management knew asbestos was present, misled an OSHA inspector about the work, failed to train or protect employees, and…
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…
Super Sky Products, Inc.
Atrium fall-protection violations affirmed
A Super Sky employee was water-testing a sloped glass atrium in Cleveland while working from a narrow gutter high above the patio below. A Labor Department attorney and OSHA supervisor watched through binoculars and saw that the employee was not tied to the safety line, although Super Sky disputed…
C.R. Huffer Roofing
Aerial-lift basket violation affirmed for $3,000
C.R. Huffer Roofing worked on a fire-station renovation in Upper Arlington, Ohio. The Secretary withdrew the accident-program and repeat-training allegations, and the parties agreed that the aerial-lift control-check item would be other-than-serious. The ALJ vacated a personal fall-protection item…
E. Smalis Painting Co., Inc.
Bridge-painting citations settled for $50,000
E. Smalis Painting was repainting the Tarentum Bridge in Pennsylvania when OSHA inspected the worksite. OSHA issued three citations alleging one willful, nine serious, and two other-than-serious violations, with proposed penalties totaling $75,000. The parties agreed that the company would withdraw…
Tri-State Construction, Inc. and National Engineering & Contracting Company
Inspection upheld and bridge-edge item vacated
Tri-State and National worked on a multi-employer interstate-highway rehabilitation project in Cincinnati. The employers challenged OSHA's initial warrantless inspection of an outdoor bridge work area and the later project-wide inspection conducted under a warrant. The Commission held that the…
Concrete Construction Company
Training affirmed and backfill violation reduced
Concrete Construction Company was cited after OSHA inspected two excavations beside a public road during a water-line project. The Commission rejected the company's inspection objections because the work was visible from a public area, the foreman consented to the inspection, and the company…
Atlas Industrial Painters
Safety-belt item remained willful, ladder item reduced
Atlas employees painted a bridge from small scaffolds about 30 feet above the ground without tied-off safety belts, lifelines, nets, or ladder extensions. The Commission affirmed the safety-belt item as willful because Atlas knew the requirement, had a prior fall-protection citation, and declined…
Dover Elevator Company
Settlement retained one ladder violation and $720 penalty
Dover Elevator employees worked in an open elevator shaft during a building renovation. OSHA cited inadequate safety training, failure to use fall protection, an unsecured ladder, and unguarded floor openings. The judge vacated the training item and affirmed the other three items with penalties…
Pace Construction Corp.
Serious scaffold and balcony fall hazards affirmed
A Pace Construction employee fell 30 feet from an unguarded outrigger scaffold and suffered serious injuries at a Florida construction project. The Commission affirmed that Pace failed to require safety belts and used another scaffold with unsecured planking and incomplete guardrails. It accepted…
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…
Crocker & West Sheet Metal Co., Inc.
Citation withdrawn after default ruling
Crocker & West Sheet Metal failed to answer an ALJ's order in its OSHA contest. The ALJ dismissed the notice of contest by default, affirmed a citation under the personal protective equipment standard, and assessed a $490 penalty. After the case was directed for Commission review, the Secretary…
Dun-Par Engineered Form Company
Serious fall protection violation affirmed after court remand
Dun-Par was a concrete-form subcontractor whose employees worked at unguarded floor edges 38 to 46 feet above the ground. Guardrails and safety belts were infeasible for the work, but the Eighth Circuit required Dun-Par to prove that other protective measures were unavailable. On remand, the…
Midwest Steel Erection, Inc.
Steel-erection settlement approved with remaining rulings final
Three OSHA inspections of Midwest's structural-steel work produced serious, willful, repeat, and other-than-serious citations with $23,200 proposed. The judge affirmed several fall-protection and ladder items, reduced one willful item to serious, affirmed the repeat and other-than-serious…
Skyline Crane Service, Inc.
Steel-erection citations and $780 penalty became final
Skyline Crane Service erected structural steel at a building project where employees worked about 60 feet above the ground. OSHA cited inadequate fall protection, missing perimeter nets, uncovered or unguarded floor openings, and the absence of immediately available fire-extinguishing equipment…
Central Wisconsin Steel Building Erectors, Inc.
Roof fall-protection citation vacated
Central Wisconsin employees installed insulation and metal roof decking on a single-story building 16 to 21 feet above the ground without fall-protection equipment. The judge affirmed a serious personal-protective-equipment citation and assessed $300. The Commission later held that the controlling…
Adams Steel Erection, Inc.
Perimeter and safety-net items affirmed, ladderway item vacated
Adams Steel was the steel-erection subcontractor on a multistory Pittsburgh construction project. The Commission affirmed a perimeter-railing item because decking remained temporary until it was welded into the structure as permanent flooring. It vacated a ladderway-opening item because the…
Serstel Corporation
Secretary withdraws two construction citations
An OSHRC judge affirmed citations against Serstel Corporation under a general personal-protective-equipment standard and a material-hoist standard. Serstel petitioned for Commission review, review was directed, and the Commission issued a briefing order. After further review, the Secretary decided…
Williams Enterprises of Georgia, Inc.
Safety-net and floor-opening items vacated
Williams Enterprises was the steel-erection subcontractor on a high-rise construction project in Atlanta. In this 1986 decision, the Commission held that the steel-erection rules displaced the general safety-net standard and vacated the exterior-fall allegations under 29 C.F.R. §§ 1926.105(a) and…
Spartan Rigging Corporation & Atlantic Rigging Corporation
Safety-belt citations withdrawn
OSHA cited Spartan Rigging and Atlantic Rigging for allegedly failing to require employees dismantling scaffolds to wear tied-off safety belts. An administrative law judge affirmed the serious citations under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a), and the employers obtained Commission review. After further…
Dun-Par Engineered Form Company
Unguarded-floor citation affirmed
A Dun-Par employee died after falling 131 feet from an unguarded eleventh-floor perimeter while banding stacks of lumber. The Commission held that the employee was exposed to a fall hazard while working 2 to 3.5 feet from the edge and that the foreman knew or should have known the assigned work…
Dun-Par Engineered Form Company
Fall-protection citation vacated as infeasible
Dun-Par employees performed concrete formwork on unguarded upper floors of an eleven-story construction project. The Commission replaced its strict impossibility defense with an infeasibility defense that considers the practical realities of the workplace. It held that Dun-Par proved perimeter…
Nu-Way Mobile Home Manufacturing, Inc.
General-industry fall citation vacated because construction standards applied
Nu-Way built mobile homes from the ground up on an assembly line, and OSHA cited the general-industry personal-protective-equipment rule after employees worked on a roof without safety belts. The Commission held that the work was construction because the nature of the work, not its factory…
The L.E. Meyers Co., High Voltage Systems Division
Three ladder and fall-protection items vacated
L.E. Meyers, an electrical contractor, was installing protective rubber hosing on power lines when an apprentice fell from a ladder, contacted an energized jumper, and was electrocuted. Another employee was injured when he jumped from the ladder. The Commission held that changing § 1926.28(a) from…
MLB Industries, Inc.
Fall-protection citation vacated because Crown controlled the work
MLB supplied three union laborers to Crown Zellerbach for emergency concrete-floor removal work at Crown’s construction project. The workers used no fall protection, and one fell about 14 feet when the concrete beneath him gave way and later died from his injuries. The judge treated MLB as the…
F. A. Gray, Inc.
Roof safety-belt item affirmed, scaffold item vacated
F. A. Gray employees painted a hotel exterior from a two-point suspension scaffold and from the edge of a 60-foot-high flat roof without safety belts. Both Commission members agreed to vacate the scaffold item because the employer had communicated and enforced a belt rule, supervisors inspected…
Rust Engineering Company
Split Commission leaves delayed fall-protection citation vacated
OSHA issued Rust Engineering a fall-protection citation 111 days after its inspection. The judge vacated the citation because the delay was unreasonable and prejudiced Rust's defense, and also found that compliance was impossible and would create greater hazards. Chairman Buckley would have…
Adams Steel Erection, Inc.
Safety-net and hard-hat citation items vacated
Adams Steel erected structural steel on a four-story building and used temporary flooring below employees working on perimeter beams. The Commission majority vacated a safety-net item because the steel-erection fall-protection rules in Subpart R governed the hazard and preempted the general…
L.M. Sessler Excavating & Wrecking, Inc.
Safety-belt citation vacated for lack of employer knowledge
A Sessler employee dismantling steel on the eighth floor worked from a ladder beside an open elevator shaft and fell into the shaft after a beam broke loose. He was not wearing a safety belt and died from the fall. The company president had issued belts, required their use, checked the equipment…
Wachsberger Roofing and Sheet Metal Works, Inc.
Flat-roof safety-belt citation withdrawn
OSHA cited Wachsberger Roofing for not requiring safety belts during work on a flat roof. The Commission asked whether the general personal-protective-equipment standard was displaced by the more specific flat-roof fall-protection rule for built-up roofing. Because factual questions remained about…
Dun-Par Engineered Form Co.
Excess serious-violation penalty vacated and remanded
The judge affirmed a serious fall-protection violation involving unguarded floors or, alternatively, missing safety belts. Although the Secretary had originally alleged a repeated violation, the judge classified it as serious and assessed a $1,620 penalty. The Commission held that the penalty…
Gerard Chimney Company
Willful items settled as repeated violations
The Secretary amended two citation items from willful to repeated violations: one under section 1926.28(a) and one covering two subitems under section 1926.451(a)(4). Gerard Chimney withdrew its notice of contest, represented that the conditions had been and would remain abated, and agreed to pay…
Turner Construction Company of Texas
Fall-protection citations withdrawn
The Commission allowed the Secretary to withdraw the citation and complaint alleging violations of the construction personal-protective-equipment and safety-net standards. The short public order does not describe the worksite conditions, proposed penalties, reasons for withdrawal, or any merits…
Hocking Valley Steel Erectors, Inc.
Attorney-fee application denied
Hocking Valley Steel Erectors sought more than $14,000 in attorney fees and expenses after the Secretary withdrew a fall-protection citation during Commission review. The company had prevailed, but the Equal Access to Justice Act allowed fees only if the government's position lacked substantial…
Tippens Steel Erection Company
Twelve-foot fall-protection citation vacated
Three Tippens employees installed and welded roof-support joists about 12 feet above a concrete floor without safety belts, nets, scaffolds, or temporary flooring. The Commission agreed that the work was steel erection, and two Commissioners concluded that the general personal protective equipment…
Power Plant Division, Brown & Root, Inc.
Fatal duct fall citation affirmed
A Brown & Root welder fell 43 feet to his death from an elevated surface inside a large air duct while inspecting a defective weld. The surface had been used for assembly work and remained available for inspection and cleanup, but its open side had only a low single wire rope rather than a standard…
Prestressed Systems, Inc.
Safety-belt citation remanded under revised precedent
Prestressed Systems contested a personal protective equipment citation involving the use of safety belts under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a). The administrative law judge vacated the citation because the Secretary had not shown that safety belts were feasible, relying on then-current Commission precedent…
BJ-Hughes, Inc.
Offshore fall-protection case remanded under general-industry law
BJ-Hughes provided cementing services on an offshore oil drilling rig where an employee worked unsecured on a narrow ledge about 50 feet above the rig floor. Pressure expelled a cementing plug, which struck the employee and caused a fatal fall. OSHA cited the construction personal protective…
Vicon Corporation
Fatal rebar fall citation amended and affirmed
Vicon employees tied reinforcing steel from a narrow plank roughly forty-five to fifty feet above a concrete floor without tied-off safety belts; one employee fell to his death. The Commission held that the reinforcing-steel standard was more specifically applicable than the general…
Merritt Electric Company, Inc.
Late contest accepted and fall citation affirmed
Merritt promptly called OSHA to protest a citation, but the area director did not clearly explain that an informal conference would not substitute for a written contest. The Commission treated the later written contest as valid because the company's confusion was reasonably attributable to OSHA's…
Prestressed Systems, Inc.
Consolidated cases severed and one citation affirmed
Prestressed Systems contested citations from two worksites, and the cases were consolidated for hearing. The judge affirmed a housekeeping citation under section 1926.25(a) in Docket No. 76-4276 and vacated a protective-equipment citation in the other case. Only the protective-equipment ruling was…
Consolidated Rail Corporation
Bridge fall-protection violation affirmed
Consolidated Rail employees replaced railroad ties on a bridge 34 feet above a busy roadway. Removing groups of ties left large openings, but the employees had no equipment protecting them from a fall. The Commission held that a Federal Railroad Administration policy statement did not displace OSHA…
Frank Swidzinski Company
Unguarded loading-platform citation affirmed
An employee stood inches from the unguarded end of a fourth-floor material platform while directing a crane, exposing him to a 41-foot fall. The Commission rejected the employer's employee-misconduct defense because there was no relevant work rule, and rejected impossibility because blocks could be…
Chapman Construction Co., Inc.
Repeated grounding and serious fall violations affirmed
A portable circular saw previously cited for lack of grounding again failed a continuity test, and employees used stairways and landings with missing or inadequate rails. The Commission held that inexpensive continuity testing would have revealed the saw's latent grounding defect through reasonable…
Bunkoff Construction Co., Inc.
Jackhammer foot-shield citation vacated
OSHA cited a jackhammer operator's use of ordinary work shoes without metal foot shields. The Commission agreed that the construction PPE standard applied, but the majority vacated for different reasons: Chairman Cleary found the Secretary had not shown that a reasonable person would recognize a…
Texland Drilling Corporation
Safety-belt citation vacated for unpreventable misconduct
A Texland Drilling derrick worker removed his safety belt, moved from a platform onto a beam about 50 feet above the derrick floor, fell, and was killed. OSHA alleged that the company failed to require appropriate personal protective equipment. The Commission found that Texland had a written and…
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…
Austin Building Company
Gas-cylinder item affirmed and fall-protection issue remanded
Austin employees welded near an unguarded edge on top of a precipitator where a fall could be nearly 80 feet. OSHA also found an acetylene cylinder ready for use and an oxygen cylinder lying unsecured on the floor. The Commission held that the compressed-gas rule requires cylinders to remain…
Darragh Company
Feed deliveries treated as exempt agricultural operations
Darragh contracted with farmers to raise its chickens and sent employees to deliver feed into bins on the farms. The drivers had to climb sixteen-to-eighteen-foot fixed ladders that did not meet several general industry ladder requirements. The Commission focused on the specific task that exposed…
National Industrial Constructors, Inc.
Sixty-foot fall-hazard items remanded under current precedent
Four employees installing metal decking faced potential 60-foot falls from a floor edge and through an unguarded wall opening. The judge vacated the safety-net and personal-protective-equipment allegations but affirmed the wall-opening item. Intervening Commission decisions changed or clarified the…
Wallace Roofing Company, Inc.
Hot-tar face-shield violation reinstated
Wallace Roofing Company supplied a face shield to an employee who fed cold tar into a hot-tar kettle, but the employee was not wearing it during OSHA's inspection. The company knew the employee's use was erratic and gave repeated oral warnings, yet it imposed no discipline even though the employee…
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.