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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Christie Constructors, Inc.
Barge safety citations produce $2,750 penalty
Christie Constructors performed bridge construction from two connected barges on the Columbia River. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz held that federal OSHA retained jurisdiction over non-maritime construction on vessels in navigable waters despite Washington's state plan. He affirmed serious violations…
Clarence Brown, d/b/a Brown's Contracting
First-aid item vacated, ladder and scaffold violations stand
Brown's Contracting was reroofing and residing a residential building when OSHA cited first-aid, ladder, and scaffold conditions. The Commission reviewed the first-aid item and held that OSHA did not prove supplies were unavailable because an employee said bandages were generally kept in the trucks…
Valmore N. LeClerc, doing business as Major Construction Company
Serious excavation citation affirmed with penalty reduced to $250
Major Construction had employees working in a deep excavation beside a house in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The excavation walls contained unstable soil, showed prior sloughing and falling material, and lacked adequate shoring or sloping. The judge found a serious violation because a wall collapse…
McHugh & McHugh
First-aid and crane swing-radius items affirmed
McHugh & McHugh used two barges and a crane while constructing a railroad bridge over the Willamette River. The Commission affirmed a first-aid item because supplies locked in a shore-side trailer were not easily accessible to employees working on barges in the river. It also affirmed a serious…
Savina Home Industries, Inc.
Thirteen construction violations affirmed
At a retail-store construction site, the judge affirmed thirteen nonserious items involving missing hard hats, deficient mobile-scaffold rails, planking and bracing, frayed drill cords, an unapproved receptacle, a knotted winch cable, reversed wire-rope clips, a damaged ladder, a mushroomed…
Ace Window Cleaning Co.
Scaffold lifeline and first-aid violations affirmed
Ace Window Cleaning employees used a suspended scaffold while cleaning windows on a Milwaukee building. The judge found a repeated scaffold violation because one lifeline did not extend far enough to protect employees working on lower floors, and two earlier uncontested citations involved the same…
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.