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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John H. Quinlan, d/b/a Quinlan Enterprises
Crane and fall-protection items affirmed
Quinlan Enterprises was erecting steel for a Georgia retail building when OSHA observed employees installing roof decking more than 36 feet above the ground without fall protection. The Commission affirmed the serious fall-protection item because the steel-erection rules did not displace the…
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…
Austin Engineering Company, Inc.
Crane and trenching violations affirmed
Austin Engineering installed a water main in a deep trench using a truck crane. The Commission reversed the judge and found a nonserious fire-extinguisher violation because extinguishers on pickup trucks about 100 feet away were not available at the crane cab as the standard required; it assessed…
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…
General Steel Fabricators
Six-item penalty reduced to $90
General Steel Fabricators received six nonserious citations involving cylinder transport, a portable ladder, crane safety measures, and tag lines. The company challenged only the judge's decision to assess $600 when OSHA had proposed a total of $90. The Commission confirmed that it may assess more…
O.K. Construction Company, Inc.
Crane, hard-hat, and recordkeeping items affirmed with penalties reduced
O.K. Construction was performing excavation work with a crawler crane at a West Virginia lift-station project. The judge affirmed a repeated fire-extinguisher violation and nonserious items involving missing crane information, an unbarricaded swing radius, absent annual-inspection records, an…
Capitol Erection and Engineering Company, Inc.
Crane, ladder, and fall items produced a mixed $1,280 result
Capitol Erection was a structural-steel subcontractor working on a medical-center project in Mississippi. The judge affirmed an unsecured-ladder item, several admitted crane defects, a missing crane-cab fire extinguisher, an inadequate boom-jib stop, and a fall-protection item involving employees…
Pima Construction Company
Steel-erection citations affirmed in part
Pima Construction was the steel-erection subcontractor for a nine-story courthouse project in Tucson, Arizona. The Commission found that employees regularly traveled near an unguarded second-floor edge, uncovered floor openings, and stairways without railings. It replaced the cited general…
M-CO Equipment Co., Inc.
Crane fire-extinguisher item reinstated
M-CO Equipment was installing a sewer line at an Arizona construction site. A required fire extinguisher for a crane was kept in a pickup truck normally about 150 feet away, and the truck moved around the worksite. The Commission held that this did not make the extinguisher accessible and available…
White Oak Corporation
Crane power-line violations affirmed with $1,355 penalties
White Oak operated a crane near 13,200-volt power lines at a Connecticut highway project. The crane boom and ball contacted the lines, and an oiler at the outrigger controls was electrocuted. The judge found a serious violation for failing to maintain ten feet of clearance and a nonserious…
Ed Miller and Sons, Inc.
Demolition-crane penalties reduced to $265
Ed Miller and Sons used a 3,000-pound wrecking ball suspended from a crane loadline by a used truck tire while demolishing Omaha's Union Station. The Commission found a serious violation because the tire was not a positive attachment and the ball could become accidentally disconnected, assessing…
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…
Harvey Wrecking Co.
Demolition-sequence item vacated
Harvey Wrecking was demolishing a 14-story Chicago building where an employee worked beside an unguarded wall opening and equipment operated near floor openings without curbs or stoplogs. The Commission affirmed those two conditions as serious violations of specific standards under section 5(a)(2)…
Winslow Crane Service, Inc.
Brace and power-line citations vacated
Winslow owned and operated a crane used near an energized power line during pipeline work. A worker employed by another company was electrocuted when the crane equipment contacted the line, but the administrative law judge vacated Winslow's serious citation because Winslow had a stricter 15-foot…
The Verne-Woodrow Company
Access citation affirmed and safety-net item vacated
Verne-Woodrow employees erected steel framing and installed roof-truss bracing about 28 feet above ground and over a concrete pit. They used no safety nets, scaffolds, catch platforms, temporary floors, safety lines, or safety belts. The administrative law judge nevertheless vacated the safety-net…
Atlantic Concrete, Inc.
Mixed ruling on floor opening and crane citations
Atlantic Concrete was cited for an unguarded floor opening and several recordkeeping, posting, first-aid, and crane-related conditions. The parties stipulated that several non-serious items were unsupported, inapplicable, or abandoned. The judge vacated those items, affirmed two crane violations…
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.