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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A. J. McNulty & Company, Inc.
Mixed ruling on fall protection during precast concrete erection
A. J. McNulty & Company was erecting a precast concrete parking garage in White Plains, New York, when OSHA cited numerous fall-protection and other safety violations. The Commission rejected McNulty's request to exclude inspection evidence, finding that OSHA substantially honored the company's…
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…
RGM Construction Company
Four bridge-safety items affirmed and two vacated
RGM Construction Company was widening a Texas bridge when OSHA cited fall-protection and water-safety conditions. The Commission affirmed a serious fall-protection item because tying a lanyard to an unsecured work platform could pull the platform down with a falling employee. It also affirmed items…
Donley's Inc.
Parking-garage guardrail violation affirmed
Donley's Inc. reconstructed a parking garage by removing floor sections and replacing them with formwork and metal pans. Employees worked beside an opening to the floor 12 feet below, where the company used sawhorses as warnings instead of standard guardrails. The Commission reversed the judge's…
Franklin E. Skepton
Twelve construction-safety violations affirmed
Franklin E. Skepton was the general contractor for a high-school addition in Pennsylvania. OSHA cited conditions including unguarded floor and wall openings, missing hard hats, unsafe compressed-gas handling, unprotected electrical equipment, unstable and unguarded scaffolds, improper gasoline…
Centex-Rooney Construction Co.
Repeated fall-protection violations affirmed with $25,000 in penalties
Centex-Rooney was the general contractor for construction of two-story hotel buildings at a Florida resort. OSHA cited one defective ground-fault circuit interrupter, uncovered pipe-chase openings, and inadequate perimeter guardrails. The Commission vacated the electrical item because regular…
Craig Mechanical, Inc.
Late contest denied despite unanswered calls to OSHA
OSHA issued Craig Mechanical one serious and several other-than-serious citations with $825 in proposed penalties. The owner called OSHA twice within the 15-working-day contest period, said he wanted the charges dismissed, and was told to wait for the area director, who never returned the calls. He…
Monitor Construction Company
Commission upholds formwork fall citations at $1,260
Monitor Construction erected concrete formwork for a parking garage at a Cincinnati shopping mall. OSHA cited 16-inch-wide, 30-inch-deep beam troughs that were not covered or guarded and an open deck edge nearly 10 feet above the ground. The Commission held that the troughs qualified as floor…
Southern Forming, Inc.
Broad safety violations affirmed at $69,150
Southern Forming, also known as Suncrete Construction, performed concrete formwork at construction sites in Sunny Isles and Delray Beach, Florida. At the Sunny Isles site, an employee fell to his death from a stairway, and OSHA's investigation identified numerous fall-protection, stairway…
J.A. Jones Construction Co.
Commission affirms item-specific fall-protection penalties
This case returned to the Commission after an earlier decision affirmed numerous serious, rather than willful, fall-protection violations at J.A. Jones Construction's Chicago high-rise project and remanded for item-specific penalties. On remand, the ALJ evaluated the fall distance, degree of…
Triangle Engineering Corp.
Mixed construction ruling carries $1,350 in penalties
Triangle Engineering was the general contractor building a prison in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. The ALJ affirmed serious violations involving site-specific safety instruction, missing edge guardrails, an accessible crane swing radius, and an unprotected excavation. She also affirmed other-than-serious…
B & M Construction
Three scaffold access and fall-protection items affirmed
B & M Construction performed asbestos removal around a boiler at a City of Lubbock power plant. OSHA found no access ladder, two unguarded openings in a walkway about 12 feet above the ground, and an unguarded I-beam used as a walkway. B & M argued that employees had not worked on the boiler…
Ocean Concrete Contractors, Inc.
Floor-opening and rebar hazards affirmed
Ocean Concrete was a subcontractor constructing a building at the Naval Submarine Base at Kings Bay, Georgia. Employees worked at the edges of an unguarded five-by-eight-foot stairwell opening and an unguarded open-sided platform about eight feet above the ground. They also worked near uncapped…
Daak Corporation
Default order remanded for good-cause determination
Daak Corporation did not appear for its scheduled hearing, and the ALJ granted the Secretary a default judgment. After hearing the Secretary's evidence, the judge affirmed 14 construction citations and assessed $7,200 in total penalties. Daak's vice president then petitioned for review and made…
Dover Elevator Company
Unsecured oxygen cylinder did not meet the carrying exception
Dover Elevator left an oxygen cylinder unsecured for 15 to 30 minutes near an elevator shaft while employees tried to repair a hoist. The Commission rejected OSHA's view that a cylinder must be secured whenever it is not physically moving, recognizing that brief, necessary pauses during carrying…
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…
E. L. Jones and Son, Inc.
Serious elevator-shaft guarding violation affirmed
A subcontractor employee suffered fatal injuries after falling 35 feet through an unguarded elevator-shaft opening at a Texas office-building project where E. L. Jones and Son was the general contractor. Jones conceded that the opening violated 29 C.F.R. § 1926.500(b)(1) but disputed knowledge and…
Lexcon Building Systems
Inspection item withdrawn, floor-opening vacatur final
Lexcon served as construction manager for a mall project and was responsible for coordinating subcontractors and conducting safety inspections. OSHA cited the company over the frequency of its inspections, an unprotected LP-gas cylinder, and two unguarded floor openings. The LP-gas item was…
Lee Roy Westbrook Construction Company, Inc.
Shaft-opening citation affirmed with a $50 penalty
Westbrook employees pulled lumber through openings in an elevator shaft while exposed to a 13-foot fall onto a debris-covered concrete floor. The general contractor was contractually responsible for safety facilities, but Westbrook's employees had the carpentry skills and materials needed to cover…
Lee Roy Westbrook Construction Company
Floor-opening citation affirmed with a reduced penalty
Westbrook was a concrete-framing subcontractor whose employees used a ladder beside an uncovered elevator shaft opening. A fall through the opening would have been about 40 feet. Westbrook argued that the general contractor was contractually responsible for covering the opening, but the Commission…
J.L. Foti Construction Co., Inc.
Three construction items affirmed, one vacated
J.L. Foti performed masonry work as a subcontractor on a hospital project and objected when OSHA inspected its enclosed elevator-shaft work area without a warrant. The general contractor consented to the inspection, but the two Commission members divided on whether that consent overrode Foti’s…
Novak & Company, Inc.
Floor-hole citation vacated for lack of knowledge
Two Novak plumbing employees walked within three feet of unguarded floor holes at a changing construction site. The general contractor controlled the openings, and union rules prevented Novak from installing rails or covers itself. Although Novak could have reported the condition or removed its…
Novak & Co., Inc.
Multi-employer worksite citations vacated
Novak, a plumbing subcontractor, was cited for allegedly inadequate overhead protection, improperly stored gas cylinders belonging to another contractor, unguarded floor perimeters, and an open floor hole. The Commission vacated every item. The Secretary did not prove that the entrance canopy was…
Atlanta Forming Co., Inc.
Construction activity satisfied commerce coverage
Atlanta Forming challenged only whether it was an employer engaged in a business affecting interstate commerce. The Commission held that construction of a multistory commercial building belongs to a class of activity affecting commerce and that construction materials and services have an interstate…
Weisblatt Electric Company, Inc.
Multi-employer fall-hazard citations vacated
Weisblatt, an elevator subcontractor, sent two employees to a renovation site to determine whether conditions had improved enough for work to resume. They encountered unguarded openings, floors, ramps, stairs, and unfilled pan-type stair treads that Weisblatt neither created nor controlled. The…
National Industrial Constructors, Inc.
Power-plant construction violations resolved
The Commission reviewed numerous fall-protection, trenching, machine, electrical, scaffold, ladder, fire-extinguisher, and equipment-alarm items from construction of a Nebraska power plant. It rejected dismissal for delayed citation issuance because the employer did not prove prejudice. It held…
Sunrise Plastering Corp.
Floor-opening citation affirmed against controlling subcontractor
Floor openings for elevators, stairs, and air ducts were left without covers or standard guardrails in a twelve-story construction project. Sunrise had performed the site's carpentry and OSHA compliance work, knew that other subcontractors had removed covers, and undertook to restore the…
Brown-McKee, Inc.
Ladder, roof-edge, and floor-opening violations affirmed
Brown-McKee left an unsecured ladder available between roof levels where employees were working. Employees also pulled materials onto a roof 54 feet above ground without safety belts, lifelines, or perimeter guardrails. Three separate floor, ladderway, and hatchway openings exposed employees to…
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…
D. Fortunato, Inc.
Mixed result on garage fall-protection, housekeeping, and fire-alarm citations
D. Fortunato, Inc. was the general contractor building a parking garage at New York City's La Guardia Airport, and OSHA cited it for fall-protection, housekeeping, and fire-alarm violations. An Administrative Law Judge affirmed most items, and the Commission reviewed and reached a mixed result. It…
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…
McLean-Behm Steel Erectors, Inc.
Subcontractor must at least ask the general contractor to fix a fall hazard
A steel-erection subcontractor placing reinforcing steel on a three-story church addition had employees working near an unguarded floor opening and open, unguarded floor edges with drops of up to twenty-five feet. OSHA cited it for a nonserious floor-opening violation (29 C.F.R. § 1926.500(b)(1))…
Gotham Electric Company
Subcontractor safety violations conditionally affirmed
Gotham Electric Company employees were exposed to construction debris, defective job-made ladders, unguarded floor openings, and unguarded open-sided floors at a multi-employer worksite. The electrical subcontractor did not create or control the conditions, but the Commission held that an exposing…
Sletten Construction Co.
Bridge-platform fall-protection violations affirmed
Sletten employees worked on a bridge cofferdam platform about 12 feet above the Yellowstone River with an unguarded edge and an uncovered opening. Another employee worked 18 feet above the ground without using a provided safety belt. The Commission rejected impossibility because guardrails could…
Donovan Electric Company
Elevator-opening violation conditionally affirmed
Donovan Electric employees passed within three to five feet of elevator openings whose railings lacked required midrails, with a maximum fall distance of 17 feet. The general contractor controlled the guardrails, while Donovan warned employees at safety meetings to stay away from openings…
Olson Construction Co.
Multi-employer guarding citations largely affirmed
Olson was a prime contractor on a state office-building project and controlled worksite safety, including the installation of guarding devices. OSHA cited missing guardrails, uncovered floor holes, unfilled stair pans, open-sided floors, and other fall hazards accessible to workers from several…
Cornell & Company, Inc.
Elevator-shaft and fire items affirmed
Cornell erected precast concrete walls at a Philadelphia hotel project. Four employees on the twentieth floor were about ten feet from partially uncovered elevator shafts, and the worksite lacked required fire extinguishers. The Commission found foreseeable employee access to those hazards, but not…
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…
Emile M. Babst Co.
Subcontractor fall-protection citations reinstated
Emile M. Babst was a subcontractor whose employees encountered unguarded floor openings, an open-sided floor, and stairway hazards created and controlled by the prime contractor. The Commission held that a non-creating, non-controlling subcontractor may still be liable when its employees are…
Armor Elevator Company, Inc.
Commission conditionally affirms an unguarded floor-opening citation with no penalty
Armor Elevator Company was an elevator-construction subcontractor at a multiemployer construction site where a floor opening was neither guarded nor covered. The judge vacated the nonserious item because Armor did not create or control the condition. The Commission held that Armor's employees had…
Munro Waterproofings, Inc.
Serious floor-opening violation affirmed at a high-rise worksite
Munro Waterproofings employees worked on the 40th floor of a high-rise where a 12-to-15-inch-wide opening surrounded a climbing tower. The judge found that employees could use a stairway that required them to step across the unguarded opening. Although the general contractor was contractually…
James Mellon, d/b/a Huntington Metal Window Service
Floor-opening and hard-hat violations affirmed
Huntington Metal Window Service employees installing windows used a second-floor stairway beside a large opening with incomplete guarding and a 12-foot drop. The judge found that the subcontractor could have covered enough of the opening to protect its workers without creating the union conflict it…
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…
Aniero Concrete Company, Inc.
Floor-edge and opening citations narrowed with penalties reduced to $600
Aniero Concrete was the concrete subcontractor on a ten-story office-building project in New Jersey. Its employees removed perimeter cables and floor-opening covers while cleanup and crane removal work was still underway, placing workers within one to three feet of unguarded edges and near loosely…
J. K. Butler Builders, Inc.
Fall-protection citation reinstated for rebar work
J. K. Butler Builders was the general contractor for a building addition in San Antonio, Texas. After a foreman left to obtain scaffold railings, employees continued tying reinforcing steel on an unguarded beam about 26 feet above the ground without safety belts or equivalent protection. The…
Baxter Electric Company
Commission leaves four subcontractors' citation vacaturs in place
Baxter Electric Company, Wentz Plumbing and Heating, Tri Sales Associates, and H. H. Robertson Company were subcontractors on construction of the State Office Building in Lincoln, Nebraska. OSHA cited each for alleged fall, floor-opening, guardrail, toeboard, and hollow-pan stair hazards under…
Space Age Concrete & Masonry, Inc.
Fall-hazard items affirmed and four other citations vacated
Space Age Concrete & Masonry worked as a masonry subcontractor on a multistory building in Naples, Florida. Inspections found employees near uncovered elevator-shaft openings and working at unguarded edges without effective fall protection. The judge affirmed the floor-opening and…
Carr Erectors, Inc.
Steel-floor perimeter item affirmed and elevator-platform item vacated
Carr Erectors was performing steel erection on a high-rise building in Columbus, Ohio. On the thirteenth floor, employees accessed a temporary steel-and-rebar floor section with no perimeter protection next to a twelve-foot gap. The Commission held that the specific steel-erection perimeter rule…
L. H. Sowles Company
Construction-site exposure citations affirmed
These consolidated cases involved three construction sites. At a North Dakota power plant, debris obstructed walkways and cutting waste fell through floor holes into an incompletely barricaded area; both nonserious items were affirmed, with a $45 penalty for housekeeping and none for falling…
Union Steel Erectors, Inc.
Willful crane-riding and fall violations affirmed
OSHA observed Union Steel employees riding a crane hook, headache ball, and suspended steel loads 50 to 70 feet above the ground. The foreman knowingly allowed the practice for about a week, the general contractor had warned him it violated safety rules, and the crane operator knew it was…
Brown and Root, Inc.
Serious items settled and scaffold-screen citation vacated
Brown and Root settled serious allegations involving an inadequately slung boiler pipe that fell about 140 feet, an uncovered floor opening, an unguarded winch platform, and an unguarded runway at the steam-drum level. Those items were affirmed under the settlement with a total $1,000 penalty. The…
Crain Electric, Inc.
Eight construction items vacated for lack of exposure proof
Crain Electric was an electrical subcontractor on a large power-station construction project with many other contractors. OSHA cited temporary wiring conditions, floor openings, floor holes, and unguarded elevated floors and proposed penalties totaling $145. The compliance officer did not observe…
Frank Briscoe Company, Inc.
Construction citations partly upheld and partly vacated
Frank Briscoe was the general contractor for a multilevel building project where OSHA cited housekeeping, floor-opening, scaffold, ladder, fall-protection, and hard-hat conditions. The Commission vacated a general personal-protective-equipment item because OSHA did not identify or prove a feasible…
A. Munder & Son, Inc. and Robert Catino, Inc.
Accessible hazards separated from remote conditions
A. Munder & Son was a sheet-metal subcontractor, and Robert Catino was a carpentry subcontractor, at a New York City building project. Both companies' employees passed near unsecured oxygen and acetylene cylinders that lacked valve caps, so the Commission affirmed the cylinder-storage violations…
Vappi and Company, Inc.
Construction-manager safety items affirmed
Vappi served as construction manager for a new Faulkner Hospital building and coordinated numerous independent contractors. Although its employees performed no permanent construction, Vappi supplied carpenters for safety measures and temporary scaffolding, laborers for debris cleanup, and…
Vappi and Company, Inc.
Construction-manager safety items affirmed
Vappi served as construction manager for a new Faulkner Hospital building and coordinated numerous independent contractors. Although its employees performed no permanent construction, Vappi supplied carpenters for safety measures and temporary scaffolding, laborers for debris cleanup, and…
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…
Otis Elevator Company
Subcontractor held responsible for accessible site hazards
Otis Elevator installed elevators in a 26-story office building where its employees had access to debris, missing elevator-shaft toeboards, and an inadequately guarded executive-elevator floor opening. Otis argued that other subcontractors created the debris and that the general contractor was…
Bechtel Power Corporation
Construction-manager safety violations affirmed
Bechtel managed construction of a Missouri power plant but did not perform craft labor. Its engineers, timekeepers, safety representatives, and other employees regularly worked throughout the construction site. The Commission held that this management and inspection work was directly tied to…
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.