Silver Taube: We need AB 694 to address severe understaffing at CalOSHA

Worker Memorial Day is April 28. On that day, we remember workers who were killed or injured on the job.

In 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 363,900 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in California with 2.6 million nationwide and 439 fatalities in California with 5,283 nationwide.

CalOSHA plays a significant role in ensuring workplaces are safe. Unfortunately, CalOSHA has a chronic understaffing crisis which impacts its ability to protect workers and leaves vulnerable workers unprotected.

Adequate staffing is critical for workers cleaning up toxic wildfire zones in Los Angeles; oil refinery workers in Martinez who experienced another explosion in February; California dairy workers who are in danger of contracting the avian flu; and the state’s ability to enforce new regulations to protect California workers from construction falls, workplace violence, lead and indoor heat.

Fortunately, Assembly Bill 694, introduced by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, will address CalOSHA’s understaffing crisis.

According to CalOSHA’s staffing data, the vacancy rate as of October 2024 was at 43% overall, with the Fremont office — the closest office to San Jose — at 55%. California’s inspector to worker ratio was one inspector to about 118,000 workers as of October 2024, compared to Oregon’s one inspector to 24,000 workers and Washington’s one inspector to 26,000 workers.

CalOSHA has only 10 certified bilingual inspectors, while 5 million of the state’s 19 million workers speak languages other than English. For immigrant non-English speaking workers in dangerous and low-paying industries — warehousing and manufacturing, meatpacking, poultry processing and agriculture — having a resourced agency with capacity to investigate and enforce the laws is critically important.

“We should be living in a world where employers know they will be held accountable,” said Stephen Knight, executive director of the influential nonprofit Worksafe. “Instead, we’re living in a world where the opposite is true. Employers know they can get away with all kinds of violations.”

The department’s inability to hire and retain its enforcement staff is a consequence of the current rigorous minimum qualifications and lack of viable workforce pipeline pathways. These barriers keep experienced, California workers from filling these positions. Despite CalOSHA’s aggressive recruitment efforts and the Legislature’s active audit, the vacancy problem persists. A long-term solution is needed.

AB 694 will address the vacancy issue by creating an advisory committee with cultural and linguistic competency dedicated to worker health and safety, and tasked with assessing and developing recommendations to increase and diversify CalOSHA’s compliance safety and health officer workforce. That includes a training program to create a pathway for people without college degrees. This initiative will also assess how to recruit workers from diverse industries, and partner with labor unions, worker advocacy organizations and academic institutions to successfully implement the recommendations.

AB 694 has an accompanying budget request of $1.25 million from the Occupational Safety and Health Fund to fund the advisory committee and study. The fund has a $200 million balance created by the unpaid salaries of field inspectors and other unfilled positions. The $1.25 million budget for the advisory committee would be a critical investment in protecting California’s workers.

This bill is of particular importance in light of expected rollbacks to enforcement of OSHA standards at the federal level. Finally, AB 694 also aims to build a sustainable, high-road public career pathway for workers across the state.

On Worker Memorial Day, it is important to advocate for AB 694 in order to address the severe understaffing crisis at CalOSHA and to protect vulnerable California workers.

San José Spotlight columnist Ruth Silver Taube is supervising attorney of the Workers’ Rights Clinic at the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center, supervising attorney of the Santa Clara County’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement Legal Advice Line and a member of Santa Clara County’s Fair Workplace Collaborative. Her columns appear every second Thursday of the month. Contact her at [email protected].