California workers’ safety agents fail to check jobs

From Jean QuangCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

The California Workers’ Safety Agency is insufficient in jobs after incidents and injuries to workers, not applying labor regulations in a way that “can” undermine them “, as there are not enough employees to carry out the inspections, state audit.

In a review The California Department of Labor Safety and Health, published on Thursday, state auditors find that the disadvantages are a major factor leading inspectors for missing personal inspections at workplaces, even when the auditors have established the department’s managers-they have been unraveling.

Almost one-third of the 800 positions of the division were free last year, a percentage that is even worse in some regional offices and among some of the employees responsible for inspections and application.

“When performing inspections, the Cal/Osha process has critical weaknesses,” writes State Auditor Grant Parks.

The weaknesses, he writes, included inspectors who were unable to review the necessary plans to prevent injuries to employers, documents from interviews with workers, to initiate inspections quickly, and to ensure that employers have turned to the alleged dangers before they close the case.

State legislation allows CAL/OSHA to check jobs proactively, after accidents or in response to a complaint. However, he self -administered checks on the death of the workplace or “serious” accidents, usually defined as those that require stationary hospital care or lead to “serious constant disfiguration”.

Execution employees first determine whether the complaints are valid and then often choose to Check “by letter” Instead, which involves writing employers with a request to investigate the complaints themselves and to document how they dealt with the dangers.

Last year, over 12,000 complaints, the agency found 87% valid; The staff inspects only 17% of these jobs personally instead of investigating a “letter”. Of the 5,800 workplace accidents, the agency considers 42% serious enough to send an inspector.

The auditors found that the staff did not always investigate a complaint or inspect a workplash when they had to have.

In one case, a union representative filed a complaint stating that construction workers ride heavy machines on the road without belts of the seats, and another worker was hanging on the side of the vehicle, in danger of falling and being hit in oncoming traffic. Cal/Osha refused to investigate as the incident was on a public road and therefore out of the agency’s jurisdiction. But the audit found that the Agency had to open the complaint, as workers were driving in the company – an activity covered by the safety rules in the workplace.

The auditors examined another complaint from a kitchen worker who was taken to ER through an ambulance, probably from thermal disease. The worker reports poor ventilation, broken air conditioning and temperatures that reach 90 degrees indoors. Despite the agency’s policies requiring on -site inspections for serious dangers involving current employees, and for any heat -related complaints, CAL/OSHA sent a letter to the employer. The auditors inspecting the records of the cases found that the employer did not respond.

Serious injuries investigated by letter

The audit also emphasized two injuries that Cal/Osha said they were not “serious enough” to check personally; In one, a worker was cut by a cutter, requiring surgery and stay in a hospital overnight, and in another worker he was knocked out when struck in the head and had a skull fracture but was not officially admitted to the hospital.

In the case of the cutter, the managers told the auditors that the worker was carrying protective equipment, so there are fewer reasons to suspect violations in the workplace. In general, the audit found that managers largely reported the disadvantages as a reason not to be checked.

The agency, notes the audit, has no complaint form on its website. In order to file a complaint, workers must call or send an email to the CAL/OSHA County Office or fill out a Federal Osha website complaint form.

The audit puts additional pressure on CAL/OSHA and its obsessed parent agency, the Ministry of Industrial Relations, to deal with a problem with the staff, which advocates and legislators claim to be doing some of the most striking protection of workers in the nation without tooth.

Comes a year after that A similar audit of the Labor Commissioner ServiceAlso, part of this department, which found workers who complained from the wage theft agency, waited an average of more than two years to resolve their claims – six times longer than the time required by law.

Both audits were ordered by state MPs who are already familiar with the shortage of complaints. Bill This year will require the department to explore how to make more attractive career paths for the positions of inspectors, some of which require engineering degrees.

Stephen Knight, director of the Worksafe advocating group, called the audit’s findings “really disappointing.”

“This confirms that California’s promise to hold responsible employers remains unfulfilled,” Knight said. “There are very good solid details and suggestions in the audit, nothing they could not invent in advance. For sure, what would require are resources and political leadership, which is side by workers over the corner employers.”

The problem is urgent, he said, noting that workplace accidents have killed three teenagers in California only in the last two weeks: one who fell into a meat mill at a Burito factory in Los Angeles County and two who died In an explosion in stock of fireworks in the rural district of Yolo.

The workplace agency has been the subject of several investigations in recent years. Last year found bee Sacramento The Cal/Osha department, which recommended criminal prosecution cases, was so lacking that it could not even consider cases where workers suffered severe but non -factual accidents, such as those that cause paralysis. Last year, they reported that the inspections and quotes of the Agency of Heat -related Dangers fell from the pandemicDespite the increasing risks of extreme heat for outdoor workers.

In a letter of June 27, in response to the audit, the Director of the Ministry of Industrial Relations, Katrina Hagen, wrote that the department “works to deal with structural and processes, as well as the problems of recruitment and detention”, including the study of the levels of pay and responsibility of the Agency. Hagen writes that this year Cal/Osha’s vacancies have dropped to 12%; The auditor replied that they had not seen up -to -date data showing this.

Hagen also writes that Cal/Osha is working on the creation of an online complaint form and said the agency is receiving a new case management system that will sign cases that needed to receive a personal check, but not. Both superstructures, she writes, are expected in 2027.

“What is the point?”

The audit also questioned the practice of CAL/OSHA to reduce the fines it has issued to employers after referring to them for safety disorders. Employers often appeal quotes, a process that may take years to resolve, and fines or violations can be reduced during settlement conferences, but auditors wrote that the reasons were not always documented. In a four -year period reviewed by auditors, the average reduction is more than half of the original fine.

Chairman of the Labor Committee Liz OrtegaDemocrat from Hayward, who asked for the audit last year, struck the practice.

“This standard CAL/OSHA operational procedure can stop today,” she wrote in response to a request from Calmatters. “Injuries will not reduce until there are no consequences. If Cal/Osha will not do it, we need to get someone who will do it.”

She said she wanted to see the agency increase its prosecution recommendations to 5% of serious cases this year and called investigations that did not include personal checks “fake”.

“Send a letter !!!” Ortega wrote. “What is the point?”

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.