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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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…
Gulf Stevedore Corporation
Commission rejects an inspection-accompaniment challenge
An administrative law judge affirmed four of five items in a nonserious citation against Gulf Stevedore Corporation. Gulf challenged two items on the ground that its senior site representative did not accompany the OSHA compliance officer during the shipboard portion of the inspection. The…
Western Waterproofing Co., Inc.
Commission affirms serious unguarded-floor violation for subcontractor's exposed workers
Western Waterproofing was a subcontractor whose employees patched concrete columns at the unguarded edge of a building's sixth floor without fall protection. The company sought to suppress the compliance officer's observations because he saw the condition before presenting credentials to its…
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…
Environmental Utilities Corp.
Trench violation reclassified as serious
Environmental Utilities installed sewer pipe in trenches in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Two employees remained in the Marietta Pike trench after two of three trench jacks were removed, leaving the trench inadequately protected from a cave-in. The Commission changed the judge's classification from…
Northwestern Insulation Co., Inc.
Scaffold violations and walkaround inspection affirmed
Northwestern Insulation employees worked from multilevel scaffolding while covering heat-exchanger towers on a roof about 30 feet above the ground. The judge affirmed violations involving missing guardrails and toeboards, excessive plank spans, and excessive plank overhang, with total penalties of…
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.