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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Irwin Steel Erectors Inc.
Four contested construction items vacated
Irwin Steel Erectors performed steel erection and welding during construction of a Motorola facility in Austin, Texas. At the hearing, it resolved six serious citation items by withdrawing its contests in exchange for reduced penalties. The four remaining items concerned fire-extinguisher access…
Potomac Electric Power Company
Trench-support citation settled for $1,000
OSHA cited PEPCO after employees entered an approximately 11.5-foot-deep trench before an adequate support system was installed. An ALJ affirmed the trench-support violation with a $200 penalty and severed a separate ladder-access allegation. During Commission review, the parties settled the…
Lowe Construction Company
Trench ladder citation vacated under specific egress standard
Lowe employees used a ladder to climb the vertical lower portion of a deep trench, then stepped off and walked up the sloped wall. OSHA cited the general construction ladder rule because the ladder ended 6 to 8 feet below ground level instead of extending three feet above the landing. 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…
Williams Enterprises, Inc.
Four citation items and $2,300 penalty became final
Williams Enterprises was the steel-erection contractor for a multistory building in Virginia. OSHA cited perimeter fall protection, an improperly positioned and unsecured ladder, an unbarricaded crane swing radius, missing perimeter railings, and gaps in temporary flooring. The judge vacated the…
Daniel International Corp.
Pre-Barlow's inspection evidence remained admissible
OSHA inspected Daniel International's Missouri power-plant construction project in 1977 without a warrant, before the Supreme Court's 1978 decision in Marshall v. Barlow's, Inc. Daniel sought to suppress the inspection evidence, arguing that its project manager had not voluntarily consented and had…
Mattson Construction Co.
Repeated classifications and $2,160 penalties reinstated
OSHA cited Mattson Construction for an unguarded second-floor edge, ladder rails that did not extend 36 inches above the landing, and an unmarked electrical circuit box. The judge affirmed the violations but reduced their repeated classifications because he found no flaunting disregard of the Act…
Stahr and Gregory Roofing Co., Inc.
Ladder and floor-guarding violations affirmed
Stahr and Gregory employees repeatedly used two ladders to reach roofing work, passing an unguarded second-floor edge and an inadequately guarded floor opening. The company did not create or control the conditions, and the general contractor was responsible for guardrails, but Stahr and Gregory…
Hogan Mechanical, Inc.
Citations vacated because foreman's exposure was not foreseeable
Hogan Mechanical installed mechanical equipment at construction sites and employed a working foreman who reported directly to the company president. OSHA cited the company for unsecured ladder conditions and missing guardrails after the foreman went alone to a church project, although he had told…
Gelco Builders, Inc.
Rebar-impalement violation and $75 penalty affirmed
Gelco employees used a 40-foot ladder positioned over protruding reinforcing steel to reach the second floor of a construction project. The judge vacated the impalement citation because the employees were installing perimeter guards rather than performing concrete work and because he did not…
Mayfair Construction Company
Sears Tower citation items split
Mayfair performed concrete construction during the Sears Tower project and contested eight nonserious citation items. The Commission vacated a temporary-wiring item because OSHA did not connect Mayfair employees to the specific wiring hazards. It also vacated a ladder-cleat item because the spacing…
Paramount Plumbing & Heating Co.
Two shared-site hazards affirmed, open-floor item vacated
Paramount Plumbing worked as a subcontractor on a New York City high-rise project. The Commission vacated an open-floor guardrail item because OSHA did not prove that Paramount's employees would enter the fall-hazard zones on the seventh or twenty-ninth floors. It affirmed items involving ladder…
Derr Construction Company
Safety-belt citation affirmed, five other steel-erection items vacated
Derr Construction was erecting a high-rise steel frame when an ironworker worked on the top edge of a girder on the 13th floor without using an available safety belt. The Commission upheld the serious personal protective equipment violation because the worker faced an obvious fall hazard and the…
Fisk-Oesco Joint Venture
Three electrical and ladder items vacated, one plug-cover item affirmed without penalty
Fisk-Oesco Joint Venture was an electrical contractor installing circuits during construction of a hospital. OSHA cited a cracked welder receptacle with an exposed prong, a welder cable resting on a catwalk, a pipe-bender plug missing its wire-termination cover, and ladder rails that did not extend…
Anthony Izzo Company, Inc.
Unguarded masonry scaffolds and seven other items affirmed
Anthony Izzo Company was a masonry contractor with employees working on two tubular welded-frame scaffolds. The platforms were 15 and 19 feet above concrete, lacked guardrails, midrails, and toeboards, and had employees working below them where bricks or debris could fall. The judge found a serious…
4G Plumbing & Heating, Inc.
Grounding item vacated and ladder item affirmed
4G Plumbing & Heating was a subcontractor at a building project in Anaconda, Montana. OSHA found that an extension cord serving a pipe buffer was missing its grounding prong. The judge vacated that item and its proposed $30 penalty because the cord had been new when brought to the job and the…
Rayco Construction Company, Inc.
Repeat guardrail and housekeeping violations affirmed
Rayco employees worked on unguarded second- and third-floor levels in cold, gusty weather with ice, snow, and water on the surfaces. Some came within inches of floor edges or worked on beams outside the floors, facing falls of 12 to 24 feet. The second floor also contained lumber with protruding…
Underhill Construction Corp. and DIC Concrete, dba DIC Underhill, a Joint Venture
High-rise helmet and perimeter items expanded
DIC Underhill was the concrete subcontractor responsible for superstructures on a 47-building high-rise project. OSHA observed employees without helmets in areas exposed to impact and falling-object hazards, and employees working throughout five unguarded five-story buildings. The Commission held…
CTM, Inc.
Combined trench and spoil-pile violation affirmed
CTM excavated a 13-foot-deep sewer trench in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, without shoring and with nearly vertical lower walls in soil of average stability. A ten-foot-high spoil pile containing large soil chunks sat three feet from the trench, where employees were working below. The Commission held…
Huber, Hunt & Nichols, Inc. and Blount Brothers Corporation, a Joint Venture
Superdome citations affirmed
The joint venture was general contractor for construction of the Louisiana Superdome, with about 350 employees and numerous subcontractors at the site. The Commission affirmed two serious citations and eighteen additional items covering perimeter and opening guards, personal protective equipment…
David Neiss, d/b/a Neiss Engineering Company
Fall-hazard penalties reduced
Neiss Engineering was cited for 12 nonserious conditions at a concrete apartment-building project, including ladder defects, unguarded floor openings and platforms, housekeeping, unsecured gas cylinders, and other guarding issues. The judge affirmed the violations and adjusted the proposed…
Boring & Tunneling Co. of America
Trench ladder and shoring violations affirmed
Boring & Tunneling employees worked in a 14-foot-deep sewer trench reached by a short, improperly pitched, and unsecured ladder. The trench sides were nearly vertical, and the shoring used deteriorated, split, and rotting timbers while nearby highway traffic created vibration. The administrative…
Kaywood Construction Company
Six final violations affirmed with $200 penalty
OSHA cited Kaywood Construction for posting and recordkeeping failures, a sagging perimeter rope, short ladder rails, and employees working without fall protection. The company's notice of contest challenged only the proposed penalties. The judge nevertheless reviewed the merits, vacated five…
Alcap Electrical Corp.
Subcontractor citations affirmed for employee exposure
Alcap Electrical was an electrical subcontractor at a building project where employees encountered unguarded floor openings, unguarded stairs, unsecured gas cylinders, and other construction hazards. Alcap argued that it did not create or control the hazardous conditions. The Commission held that a…
Danco construction Company
Mixed ruling on sewer-work citations and penalties
Danco received consolidated citations from three Little Rock sewer-construction sites involving posting, hard hats, fire protection, fuel handling, trenching, electrical equipment, ladders, traffic visibility, and spoil placement. The Commission held that Danco's timely contest of a citation also…
Wilmorite, Inc.
Construction citations withdrawn with prejudice
Wilmorite was adding six floors to an existing building in Syracuse, New York. OSHA cited an unguarded tenth-floor perimeter, a short ladder extension, unguarded floor and ladderway openings, and construction debris. The judge vacated the citations after finding, among other things, that the…
Sechrist-Hall Company
Three roof-safety cases remanded for merits decisions
OSHA issued serious fall-protection citations after Sechrist-Hall employees worked on three unguarded roof areas 16 or 22 feet above the ground. One site also produced a nonserious citation because a ladder did not extend 36 inches above the landing and had no grab rails. The judge vacated all…
Frank Galey, Jr., d/b/a Galey Construction Co.
Ladder item reinstated and trench violation classified as nonserious
Galey Construction installed drain pipe in a long trench that reached approximately 18 feet deep at its western end. The Commission affirmed a trenching violation as nonserious because the hard, compact soil was nearly sloped to the required angle and the record did not establish a substantial…
Wayne Taysom & Eli Taysom, d/b/a Taysom Construction Company
Crane power-line violation affirmed with a $300 penalty
Taysom Construction was building a concrete bank vault and used a crane to move cement from a delivery truck to the vault. The crane boom contacted an energized 12,000-volt power line, and the delivery-truck driver was killed when current traveled through the crane cable and bucket. The judge found…
Laster and Fingeret, Inc.
Penalties imposed for eight admitted construction violations
Laster and Fingeret was the general contractor at a building project and admitted three serious and five nonserious construction violations. The cited conditions included missing stair and perimeter railings, unguarded floor openings, fire-extinguisher and first-aid deficiencies, unsecured gas…
Martin Iron Works, Inc.
Crane inspection violations added without penalties
Martin Iron Works used a crane beyond the manufacturer's rated lifting radius and capacity during structural steel erection at a Nevada casino project. The judge affirmed that serious violation for $850, along with an inadequate ladder for $55, unsecured gas cylinders for $55, and an improperly…
J. F. Probst & Co., Inc.
Roof guardrail citation reinstated with $25 penalty
J. F. Probst employees performed roofing work about 20 feet above the ground without a standard railing or equivalent fall protection. The judge vacated that item because he found the open-sided floor and platform rule inapplicable to roofs. The Commission reversed, holding that the standard…
RPM Erectors, Inc.
High-rise platform violation reclassified as serious
RPM Erectors used a movable platform outside a high-rise building to land curtain-wall materials. While RPM employees used it, the side guardrails lacked intermediate rails and toeboards, exposing employees to falls from heights between 18 and 33 stories. The platform was later damaged after RPM…
J.E. Roupp & Company, Inc. and Denver Dry Wall Company
Drywall fall violations upheld
J.E. Roupp was the general contractor for an apartment-building project, and Denver Dry Wall was a subcontractor. A Denver Dry Wall employee was killed after stored railings fell and pushed him from an unguarded fourth-floor balcony, and another employee used a stairway without handrails or…
Painting Unlimited, Inc.
Unsafe access upheld, ladder side-rail item vacated
Painting Unlimited was spray-painting bridge girders from a scaffold more than 40 feet above the ground. Employees had to hoist themselves about four feet from the scaffold to the girder because no suitable ladder, stairway, ramp, or runway provided safe access. The Commission affirmed that access…
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.