A third of Cal-OSHA's district directors are rising up against the agency's appeals board, charging in a letter this week that the board's policies "sabotage" their job of protecting California's workers.
The governor appoints the three members of the California Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board, which is in charge of hearings for employers who challenge fines inspectors have issued for safety violations.
Forty-seven "front line" inspectors and supervisors signed a letter demanding changes. In January and May, the Senate Rules and Labor Industrial Relations committees heard similar grievances about the board, whose chairwoman promised change.
Those who signed the letter include eight out of 24 Cal-OSHA district managers, including the only four managers in Northern and Southern California in charge of "high hazards" and the Economic Employment Enforcement Coalition, the EEEC.
The EEEC was created by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration to root out safety violations and unfair labor practices that plague certain industries.
The dissident inspectors allege that for four years, the appeals board has undermined their work because it has "deliberately overbooked" multiple case hearings at the same time before one judge. Judges do not have enough time for all cases to be heard, they say, and witnesses on both sides who have been forced to drive long distances sit idly.
Hearings get kicked to later dates, inspectors say, and it's often hard to get witnesses to return. As a result, the letter states, district managers have been forced to quietly settle hundreds more cases than they used to, "with drastic reductions of final penalties," sometimes down to "pennies on the dollar."
"The people who pay the cost for these policies are California workers whose employers look at Cal-OSHA as an agency that is forced to fight with one hand tied behind its back," the letter says.
The letter said individual inspectors have not spoken out because they feared reprisals.
Last May, Appeals Board Chairwoman Candice Traeger explained in a Senate hearing that some of the crowded scheduling was the result of her effort – now completed – to reduce a backlog of cases.
The inspectors' letter claims, though, that this month the practice continues. On 14 days in June, they say, the board scheduled four cases at the same time with the same judge.
The California Department of Industrial Relations – the supervising agency for Cal-OSHA – issued a statement in response to the inspectors.
The letter "brings up concerns that are already being addressed through the newly developed process of (public) stakeholder meetings," the statement said.
Call Susan Ferriss, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1267.
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