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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T.L.T. Construction Co., Inc.
Open-edge and willful scaffold violations affirmed
T.L.T. Construction was the general contractor on a school gymnasium project where employees worked near an unguarded floor edge and on tall scaffolds. Judge Richard DeBenedetto found that the open-sided floor exposed employees to falls of six to nine feet. He also found that employees climbed…
R.K. Construction & Development Co.
All five demolition-site citations affirmed with penalties reduced to $4,250
R.K. Construction & Development Co. is a small family-owned demolition and building restoration contractor in Savannah, Georgia. While the company was tearing down a three-story building, an OSHA compliance officer driving by saw employees on a scaffold about 25 feet up and stopped to inspect. OSHA…
C & D European Stucco and Stone, Inc.
Scaffold and inspection items vacated
C & D European Stucco and Stone, Inc. installed insulation and stucco from scaffolding on a six-story motel project in Georgia. OSHA alleged that employees worked on unguarded scaffold areas and that a competent person had not made regular site inspections. The judge credited the employer's…
Milo Construction Corporation
Twelve violations affirmed with reduced classifications
Milo Construction Corporation was the prime contractor on a residential construction project in Guam. After Milo failed to comply with discovery orders, the judge deemed admitted the cited conditions, employee exposure, and Milo's ability to control or correct the hazards. The violations covered…
Milo Construction Corporation
Nine construction violations affirmed
Milo Construction Corporation was the prime contractor for construction at Sirena Plaza in Agana, Guam. After Milo failed to comply with discovery orders, the cited violations, their classifications, and Milo's knowledge were deemed admitted. The judge held Milo responsible for hazards involving…
G-MAC Construction Company, Inc.
Willful scaffold citations reduced to serious, penalties cut sharply
G-MAC Construction Company, Inc. was the stucco subcontractor on a Comfort Inn project in Omaha, Nebraska, and in turn subcontracted the work to Eucardo Molina, whose crew worked from a 40-foot scaffold with no guardrails and climbed the frame to get on it. G-MAC argued Molina was an independent…
Midwest Masonry, Inc.
Repeat scaffold access and guardrail citations affirmed, penalties reduced
Midwest Masonry, Inc. was building a masonry wall in Kearney, Nebraska, when an OSHA compliance officer driving past videotaped workers climbing down a scaffold frame and working on an unguarded platform. OSHA issued two repeat citations, one for failing to provide a ladder or equivalent safe…
Continental Roof Systems, Inc.
Mootness dismissal reversed and case remanded
OSHA cited Continental Roof Systems for sixteen alleged roofing, scaffold, fall-protection, equipment, training, and recordkeeping violations, with $139,600 in proposed penalties. The ALJ dismissed the case as moot after Continental went out of business and had no employees. The Commission had…
Meridian Contractors, Inc.
Dismissals reversed and citation cases remanded
OSHA issued Meridian Contractors serious and willful construction citations with proposed penalties after two inspections. The ALJ dismissed both cases under Commission precedent treating the actions as moot because Meridian had stopped employing workers and was preparing to dissolve. After that…
Alan Gregor, d/b/a Gregor Construction Company
Missing-safety-program citation affirmed against a metal-framing subcontractor
OSHA inspected a community-college construction site in Niceville, Florida, after a worker fell 85 feet to his death from a scaffold. That worker did not work for Gregor Construction, the metal-framing subcontractor, but the inspection led OSHA to cite Gregor for three serious violations. After the…
The Edward R. Hart Co.
Three serious scaffold and training violations affirmed
The Edward R. Hart Co. was an insulation subcontractor working at the Dover Chemical plant in Dover, Ohio. Responding to a complaint about workers on unguarded scaffolds, OSHA inspected and issued a three-item serious citation. OSHA charged that the company failed to train employees to recognize…
Connelly Construction Corp.
Scaffold guardrail violation affirmed as willful
Connelly performed masonry work from multi-level scaffolding at a shopping mall construction site. The judge found serious violations for employees without hard hats, inadequate scaffold access, missing overhead screening above a building entrance, and unguarded stairways. The principal…
Davy Songer, Inc.
The top of a shipping crate workers stood on to rig out machinery was a "walking/working surface" requiring fall protection
Davy Songer, Inc. was a construction contractor with about 290 employees at a worksite in Canton, Ohio. OSHA issued a six-item serious citation, and the company and the Secretary settled all but one item before the hearing. The remaining item (item 4) was decided on the written record without a…
Keith Rasmussen & Sons Construction
Scaffold and fall-protection citations mostly upheld, but penalties cut sharply for a four-worker employer
Keith Rasmussen & Sons Construction, a four-worker builder in Ouray, Colorado, was inspected by OSHA in April 1994 at a jobsite on Main Street. OSHA issued five citation items covering scaffold access, scaffold footing, guardrails, an unguarded second-floor edge, and the lack of a written safety…
Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting Co.
Scaffold access deemed de minimis, missing rails and toeboards cost $700
Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting Co. erected a tubular welded-frame scaffold about 15 feet high for two employees welding at a White Plains, New York worksite. The employees climbed down scaffold rungs spaced 18 to 24 inches apart instead of using a nearby ladder. Chief Judge Irving Sommer found…
M & W Roofing Co., Inc.
Scaffold access, guardrail, and hard-hat violations affirmed for $1,100
M & W Roofing Co., Inc. worked from scaffold platforms at a Walgreens construction site in Wisconsin. An employee reached the scaffold by climbing its cross members because no ladder or equivalent safe access was provided. The 12-foot and 18-foot platforms also lacked required guardrails and…
R.G. Friday Masonry, Inc.
Repeated guardrail violations affirmed, penalties reduced
R.G. Friday Masonry was the masonry subcontractor at two Pittsburgh construction sites where employees worked on tubular welded-frame scaffolds with missing or inadequate guardrails. The company argued that guardrail installation had to be delayed for orderly work flow and material handling, but…
Sommer Builders, Inc.
Scaffold item affirmed as willful, penalty reduced to $7,500
Sommer Builders performed masonry work from tubular welded-frame scaffolds at a Boise construction project. Employees faced an interior fall through window openings guarded only by loose rebar and exterior falls from unguarded outrigger platforms, including potential falls of about 38 feet. The…
Merchant's Masonry, Inc.
Scaffold and forklift penalties increased to $8,400
Merchant's Masonry employees worked on an unguarded 18-foot scaffold, and the company also used a forklift without a seatbelt or working horn and left it running with raised forks. The willful scaffold classification was not disputed on review, but the Commission raised its penalty from $500 to…
Siravo Contracting, Inc.
Three scaffold and masonry items affirmed, two vacated, $975
Siravo Contracting was doing masonry work on a Caldor department store construction site in Philadelphia when OSHA inspected in December 1992 after a referral about an overloaded, unguarded scaffold. The agency issued five serious items: too much block stored on the scaffold, an untapered stack of…
Caribco International Corporation
Scaffold and safety-program violations affirmed
Caribco International was working at a fitness-facility construction site at Fort Buchanan in San Juan, Puerto Rico. OSHA cited missing scaffold guardrails, an unguarded open-sided floor, inadequate scaffold bracing, and failures to maintain an accident-prevention program and train employees to…
Metric Constructors, Inc.
General contractor held liable for subcontractor hazards
Metric Constructors was the general contractor for a 29-building federal prison project covering about 200 acres in Estill, South Carolina. OSHA cited scaffold, trench, hazard-communication, fire-extinguisher, compressed-gas-cylinder, and trench-access conditions created by subcontractors whose…
Pyramid Masonry Contractors, Inc.
Outrigger scaffold midrail violation affirmed
Pyramid Masonry Contractors was performing masonry construction in Orlando, Florida. OSHA cited the company after an employee worked on a 20-inch-wide outrigger platform 18 feet above the ground beside a 29-inch opening that lacked a midrail. The Commission held that the tubular welded frame…
Kenneth J. Herman, Inc.
Construction safety violations affirmed
Kenneth J. Herman, Inc. was constructing fire escapes at a New York worksite. OSHA cited employees working without required head protection, using a scaffold frame instead of safe access, and working on scaffolds without required guardrails or effective tie-off protection. OSHA also cited the…
Gilbane Building Company
Mixed ruling on construction-site fall hazards
Gilbane Building Company was the construction manager responsible for overall safety at a large Pennsylvania project. The judge held Gilbane liable under the multi-employer worksite doctrine for hazards affecting subcontractor employees. He affirmed serious violations for a scaffold without…
Custom Services
Settlement approved with $975 in penalties
OSHA issued Custom Services a serious citation containing several construction safety items. At the hearing, the parties reached a settlement and placed its terms on the record. The judge adopted the agreement, which withdrew one scaffold item and affirmed the remaining listed violations. The order…
Harris Masonry, Inc.
Unguarded scaffold violation affirmed
Harris Masonry performed masonry work at a Pennsylvania middle school construction site. OSHA observed three employees on scaffolds about 15 feet high without guardrails. The company argued that the employees were erecting the scaffolds, but the judge credited evidence that the scaffold height did…
Sal Masonry Contractors, Inc.
Ladder item vacated and guardrail violation made willful
Sal Masonry Contractors was cited for ladder and scaffold violations during masonry work on an academic building at Cornell University. The Commission vacated the scaffold-access item because the testimony conflicted over whether a ladder was present and whether supervisors knew employees were…
Sprinkle Masonry, Inc.
Scaffold case settled for $7,000
Sprinkle Masonry contested scaffold items alleged as willful, two repeat ladder-related instances, and an other-than-serious item. Under the settlement, the Secretary removed the willful characterization from the scaffold violations and Sprinkle Masonry withdrew its contest to those items. The…
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…
Fred C. Kroeger & Sons
Scaffold access item affirmed for $100
Fred C. Kroeger & Sons was a bricklaying subcontractor at a church construction site. OSHA cited the company because employees climbed scaffold braces without an access ladder and because a scaffold allegedly lacked required guardrails and toeboards. The ALJ affirmed the access item, reduced its…
J.L. Foti Construction Company
Scaffold-block issue remanded for stability finding
J.L. Foti Construction Company, a masonry contractor, used concrete blocks as part of the support for a scaffold at a wastewater-treatment-plant project. Following a Sixth Circuit decision, the Commission remanded the alleged violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.451(a)(2) to the administrative law judge…
Carpenter Rigging Incorporated
Floor-opening citation vacated under the specific-standard rule
Carpenter Rigging was cited after an employee used a stairwell near an inadequately guarded opening with a possible 25-foot fall. The citation alleged a violation of the general construction rule for guarding open-sided floors. The Commission majority affirmed the judge's decision to vacate because…
J.L. Foti Construction Company, Inc.
$500 scaffold penalty reinstated after court remand
A federal appeals court remanded the case with instructions to reinstate the administrative law judge's original civil penalty against J.L. Foti Construction. The underlying violation concerned the scaffold guardrail standard. Following the court's mandate, the Commission assessed the original $500…
Avalotis Painting Company
Unguarded scaffold citation affirmed
Employees sandblasted from the unguarded top level of a scaffold inside a reheating duct. The Commission held that Avalotis affected interstate commerce because it used out-of-state products, and that employees had access to a 17-foot fall hazard at the scaffold's open end, especially while using…
Paul Betty d/b/a Betty Brothers
Scaffold and housekeeping violations affirmed but repetition rejected
Two Betty Brothers employees worked from a 12-foot scaffold without guardrails or an access ladder, and debris with protruding nails surrounded the work area. The senior employee supervised the other worker, purchased materials, reported progress, and acted as the company's on-site representative…
Donald Harris, Inc.
Unguarded scaffold violation properly classified as repeated
OSHA found the company's foreman working on a scaffold about 15 feet high without a standard guardrail. Donald Harris argued that the citation should be vacated because it was not invited to join the inspection, but the Commission found no prejudice to its defense. The company had two earlier final…
J. L. Foti Construction Company, Inc.
Scaffold and repeated-classification issues remanded
Employees worked on three levels of a tubular-frame scaffold without standard guardrails and toeboards. The judge found a serious violation but rejected repeated classification because the earlier citation involved a different scaffold standard. The Commission remanded for reconsideration of…
Masonry Contractors, Inc.
Fall-protection items affirmed and saw-grounding item vacated
Masonry Contractors employees worked on the seventh floor near unguarded shafts, floor holes, open sides, and a material-hoist landing. The subcontractor did not inspect the floor, warn its employees, request correction by the general contractor, or use realistic alternative protection, and it…
Kehm Construction Co.
Scaffold violation upgraded to willful
Kehm employees worked more than 20 feet above the ground on a scaffold and connecting runway that lacked required guardrails, midrails, and toeboards. The general contractor and another subcontractor repeatedly warned Kehm's vice president and foreman about the scaffold deficiencies over several…
Georgia Quality Masonry, Inc.
Electrical violations conditionally affirmed
Georgia Quality Masonry employees were exposed to unguarded temporary lights, unsafe temporary-light cords and connections, and inadequately protected extension cords. The masonry subcontractor did not dispute the conditions but argued that it lacked electricians and could not perform electrical…
Emerick Construction, a corporation
Commission reviews only the penalties, drops the bulb-guard fine, and cuts the repeated-violation penalty
Emerick Construction was the general contractor building a hospital addition when two OSHA inspections produced four violations, later consolidated before Administrative Law Judge Thomas J. Donegan. Emerick did not dispute that the violations happened; it argued only that the penalties were too…
Western Waterproofing Company, Inc.
Roof fall-protection citations affirmed
Western Waterproofing employees resurfaced a roof about 61 feet high. Two employees spraying polyurethane foam worked near the roof edge without using available safety belts, lanyards, or lifelines. The Commission found that tied-off belts were effective and feasible, rejecting the company's claim…
A. Mazzetti & Sons, Inc.
Scaffold-guarding violation affirmed
Mazzetti employees worked at the top of a 30-foot scaffold that lacked guardrails and toeboards. The company argued that the workers were raising the scaffold, which temporarily made guarding impossible, rather than laying block. The Commission credited photographs, wet mortar, and testimony…
Eliason & Knuth Drywall Company
Drywall citation rulings left in effect
Eliason & Knuth received citations at two Omaha construction sites for housekeeping, scaffold, electrical, and guarding conditions. The Commission declined to review the judge's rulings on most items because no party objected and no compelling public-interest issue was shown. The disputed issue was…
Jerry Botchlet Masonry Construction Co.
Commission narrows scaffold citation and reduces penalty to $50
Jerry Botchlet Masonry Construction employees worked from a main scaffold about 20 feet high and two lower relay scaffolds. The main scaffold had a toprail but lacked a midrail and toeboard, while the relay scaffolds were temporarily unguarded after being lowered and stocked. The Commission found…
H. W. Ivey Construction Co., Inc.
Scaffold and tower violations affirmed, other fall items vacated
H. W. Ivey was constructing a four-level parking garage with scaffolds at three corners and an approximately 40-foot elevator and stair tower. The judge affirmed serious violations for missing or improperly installed scaffold cross-bracing, missing scaffold guardrails and toeboards, and an…
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…
Calcedo Construction Corporation
Scaffold charge reduced from willful to serious
Calcedo employees worked below overhead steel activity without hard hats, cut brick without eye protection, and used a 25-foot scaffold without a proper access ladder, complete planking, guardrails, or toeboards. The judge affirmed the head, eye, ladder, and scaffold citations. He found the…
Beatty Equipment Leasing, Inc.
Scaffold supplier liable for hazard to other contractors' employees
Beatty Equipment supplied and erected tubular welded scaffolding for a multi-employer construction project. The scaffold lacked midrails, and employees of lathing and plastering subcontractors worked on levels about 11 and 16 feet above the ground, although no Beatty employees were present. The…
Emery Smiser Construction Co.
Serious scaffold citation vacated, nonserious item affirmed
Emery Smiser Construction used scaffolds while repairing a church steeple in Oklahoma City. The judge affirmed a nonserious item for an unguarded material-hoist scaffold platform but reduced the proposed $55 penalty to $25 because exposure was brief, injury was unlikely, and the employer showed…
Scientific Coating Co., Inc.
Serious unguarded-scaffold violation affirmed
Scientific Coating employed painters at a power-plant construction project in Newark, New Jersey. An OSHA inspector observed two employees on the top platform of an approximately 18-foot scaffold without guardrails, midrails, or toeboards. The judge found that a fall could have caused serious…
Savannah Iron and Fence Corporation
Serious circuit-tagging violation affirmed
Savannah Iron and Fence was altering a monorail system while an electrical contractor temporarily connected the monorail circuit to a bridge-crane circuit. The steel contractor's foreman requested that power be shut off but did not ask whether the disconnect had been made inoperative and tagged…
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.