Word: cal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...nation's first heat-illness standard, requiring farms and contractors to provide water and shade to the state's 650,000 farm workers who help supply 44% of the nation's fruits and vegetables. The lawsuit claims the enforcement agency, the State's Division of Occupational Health and Safety (Cal-OSHA) is woefully understaffed (only 198 inspectors for 17 million state workers including the 650,000 farm workers) and that since California enacted its Heat Illness Prevention regulation, "the number of farm-worker heat-related deaths has increased." Catherine Lhamon, assistant legal director for the ACLU of Southern California, said...
...recently signed state budget authorized $1.5 million to expand outreach efforts to educate workers and employers about heat illness in all outdoor industries. Unlike many state agencies, Cal-OSHA did not see its budget cut. (Read a story about California's severe budget cuts...
...Cal-OSHA spokesman Dean Fryer said the state is doing a better job educating growers and that currently 16% of employers visited by inspectors violate the rules as compared to 67% three years ago. Yet the UFW and its attorneys contend that last year the agency conducted only 750 inspections among the approximately 35,000 farms statewide - and found "that nearly 40% had violated mandatory heat-safety regulations." According to the lawsuit, six farm workers died from heat-related illness in 2008. State officials count three. There have been no deaths in 2009, but the union says there have been...
Reacting to the lawsuit, Cal-OSHA filed a proposal with the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to amend the regulation to require that shade be present at all times. Agency official John C. Duncan said the proposed revision "will make it clear that employees have the right to take a rest in the shade whenever they feel the need to do so to prevent overheating." In the past two months, however, the board has twice failed to adopt emergency proposals to strengthen the heat regulation. After the second rejection, Schwarzenegger issued a statement saying that the board "has failed...
...closed doors will primarily affect the poor and the working class - including health coverage for the poor and the CalWORKs welfare-to-work program. But the severe funding reductions to public schools and to the university system - affecting not only the University of California, but also the 23-campus Cal State University system and the community-college system - will strike California's large middle class in a fundamental...