A Galt farm labor contractor that was shut down this summer and fined $77,000 for failure to follow heat-illness prevention laws is free to operate again, a Cal-OSHA spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Cal-OSHA, the state's occupational safety agency, allowed Solis Farm Labor Contractor to reopen Tuesday because inspectors believe the company now is adequately training and protecting workers, agency spokeswoman Erika Monterroza said.
Every week, she said, the company must tell Cal-OSHA officials in Sacramento where their farmworkers will be working to allow inspectors to check on them.
Solis came under scrutiny after Cal-OSHA began investigating the heat-stress death in May of laborer Maria Vasquez Jimenez, 17. She was working for a different company but was in the same San Joaquin County vineyard as Solis employees.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the closure of Solis in June as a show that employers must "obey the law or be shut down."
Monterroza did not know if Solis has appealed its fine.
Merced Farm Labor, the Atwater company that employed Vasquez Jimenez, was shut down and fined $263,700 in July, the biggest penalty ever against an employer for heat-illness prevention violations.
Merced has appealed the fine, Monterroza said.
– Susan Ferriss
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