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.
Rust Engineering Company
Split Commission leaves delayed fall-protection citation vacated
OSHA issued Rust Engineering a fall-protection citation 111 days after its inspection. The judge vacated the citation because the delay was unreasonable and prejudiced Rust's defense, and also found that compliance was impossible and would create greater hazards. Chairman Buckley would have…
Navajo Forest Products Industries
Tribal enterprise not subject to the OSH Act under Navajo treaty rights
Navajo Forest Products Industries was created and operated by the Navajo tribe on the reservation to develop timber resources, provide employment, and support tribal services. OSHA cited the enterprise after workplace inspections, and the parties agreed that it fit the Act's literal definition of…
Louisiana-Pacific Corp.
Commission reverses a promptness dismissal and remands a workplace-noise citation
OSHA cited Louisiana-Pacific Corporation's Moyie Springs, Idaho facility under the occupational-noise standard after a December 1973 inspection. The judge vacated the citation without reaching the merits because it was issued on January 7, 1974 and, in his view, lacked reasonable promptness. The…
Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.
Amended open-pit guarding citation affirmed
Kaiser was originally cited under a floor-hole standard for failing to cover or guard open carbon pits. In an earlier decision, the Commission substituted the standard specifically requiring covers or guardrails for open pits and gave Kaiser an opportunity to object. The Commission rejected…
General Electric Company
Unguarded paint-room pit violated open-pit standard
General Electric used a long, five-foot-deep pit to paint the undersides of railroad cars at its Erie facility. After a car left the room, painters routinely cleaned debris from a floor surrounding the unguarded pit and worked within two to three feet of its edge. The Commission held that…
Universal Terminal & Transport, a Division of Universal Maritime Service Corp.
Unsecured hatch-beam citation affirmed
Universal Terminal & Transport conducted longshoring work at the Port of New York beneath a one-ton hatch beam whose locking devices were broken. The company tied the beam with manila rope, but a crane cable snagged it and pulled it from its sockets, causing it to fall into the hatch and inflict…
Consumers Power Co.
Conductor-control citation affirmed
Consumers Power employees were removing deenergized conductors near an energized circuit when the third conductor moved unexpectedly and contacted the live line. The contact produced an electrical flash that burned the lineman's face and neck. OSHA alleged that the conductor was not kept under…
Southern Railway Company
Locomotive-derailer violation and $200 penalty affirmed
Southern Railway employees worked in maintenance pits where moving locomotives could strike locomotives under repair, and the company relied on its industry-standard blue-flag or blue-light rule rather than installing derailers. The Commission held that industry custom helped establish recognition…
George V. Hamilton, Inc.
Promptness dismissal reversed for a hearing
OSHA inspected George V. Hamilton, Inc. on December 15, 1972, and issued a serious citation 89 days later. Before holding a hearing, the judge ordered the Secretary to justify the delay under the Act's requirement that citations be issued with reasonable promptness. When the Secretary declined, the…
Eastern Knitting Mills, Inc.
Employer's abatement letter treated as a contest
OSHA cited Eastern Knitting Mills for 12 nonserious violations and proposed $400 in penalties. Within the statutory contest period, the company wrote that it had corrected or was correcting all items except item 10 and asked for help because it did not know how to meet that item's abatement…
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.