Employer safety citation vacated on lack of proof

An administrative law judge of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has vacated a serious citation and a proposed $6,234 penalty against an Ohio employer due to the U.S. Department of Labor’s failure to prove the employer violated the cited standard.

The case against Cincinnati-based The Thomas J. Dyer Co. stemmed from a March 2017 inspection conducted by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for an alleged violation of an OSHA construction industry standard related to gas welding and cutting, according to commission documents.

But the judge concluded that the department failed to prove a violation of the cited standard because it relied on an internal memorandum about testing protocols that the court did not find to be reliable and failed to prove the barrier separating liquid petroleum and oxygen cylinders violated fire-resistance rating requirements.

The administrative law judge’s decision became a final order of the commission on Wednesday.

An employer representative could not be immediately reached for comment.