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.
No decisions match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
Linde Enterprises, Inc.
Trenching cave-in items affirmed serious, seat-belt item vacated, $1,800
Linde Enterprises is a Pennsylvania excavating contractor that was installing utility lines in Dunmore, Pennsylvania. Acting on an anonymous complaint, an OSHA compliance officer inspected the trench worksite and issued one serious citation with four items. Linde first argued the inspection was…
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…
Sweetman Construction Company
Scraper seat-belt violation affirmed
A scraper operator was killed after two earth-moving vehicles collided, which prompted OSHA to inspect Sweetman Construction's highway project. The record did not establish whether that employee had been wearing a seat belt before the accident, so no violation was found from the fatal incident…
Sletten Construction Co.
Bridge guardrail citation affirmed
Sletten Construction was excavating bridge piers and used a work bridge above water without guardrails. The Commission upheld the judge's finding, based on circumstantial evidence, that employees were exposed to the unguarded bridge and affirmed the repeated violation with a $340 penalty. It also…
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review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.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.