A federal review of job safety enforcement by the states has come down hard on California, saying its Division of Occupational Safety and Health is slow to respond to hazard complaints, does a bad job of training inspectors, and is too willing to reduce penalties or dismiss cases through its appeals process — even in the case of a worker’s death.
The report by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Labor, assessed the performance of 25 states and territories that have taken over responsibility for job safety.
Jordan Barab, deputy assistant Secretary of Labor for occupational safety and health, told the Los Angeles Times that the problems of the California agency, known as Cal/OSHA, were “relatively serious, especially with the appeals board.”
In an investigation last fall, the Times highlighted the case of Bimbo Bakeries, which got minimal fines for repeated safety violations at its California plants — even though six Bimbo workers lost fingers and limbs in accidents involving similar violations. The penalties were reduced or dismissed following appeals to Cal/OSHA’s appeals board.
In another case detailed by the Times, a construction contractor got penalties thrown out after the death of an employee because the citations misstated the company’s legal name.
The OSHA report also cited California’s failure to investigate 96 percent of whistleblower complaints within 90 days as required. FairWarning reported in June that when workers complain of illegal reprisals for raising safety concerns, the cases take longer to investigate in California than anywhere else.
Cal/OSHA chief Len Welsh disputed some of the findings in the federal report. “They got a lot of stuff frankly wrong, and embarrassingly so,” he told the Times. For example, Welsh said, the report said Cal/OSHA had failed to open investigations quickly enough after seven fatal accidents, but said elsewhere that this had happened twice.
In a press release announcing the report, OSHA singled out Hawaii as having “significant performance problems” as a result of staff and funding cutbacks. OSHA said it would consider taking over Hawaii’s program if the state is “unable to present a reasonable strategy for expeditiously improving its worker safety and health oversight.”
On the upside, the review praised injury and illness prevention efforts that exceed OSHA requirements, including in California, Washington, Oregon and Minnesota.
Under federal law, states can regulate workplace safety and health, but state standards and enforcement must be at least as effective as those of the federal agency. States have 30 days to respond to the report with a corrective action plan.
Read the full OSHA report.
Related posts:
