To make workplaces safe post-pandemic, California must make Cal-OSHA stronger. Here’s how

For millions of Californians, the COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the way we work. Daily commutes and late nights at the office are out and Zoom is in. But for millions of wage earners, predominantly Black and brown workers, the “new normal” is more dangerous workplaces.

The jobs these workers held before the pandemic became death-defying virtually overnight. They now come with new risks from the front lines of climate-driven heat and wildfire smoke to more virulent pathogens. California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health simply lacks the capacity to keep workers safe, and the agency does not have the ability to bring anything but inadequate penalties on employers who flout the law.

We need a new model for California’s worker safety agency, backed by the resources to make work safe.

Since even before the pandemic, Cal-OSHA has been hobbled by a crushing workload and dozens of vacancies in critical positions. The administration told state senators in February that “enforcement of health and safety regulations has been minimal to non-existent due to the lack of occupational health inspectors.”

Workers in meat processing plants, grocery stores, nursing homes, airports, hospitals and pharmacies fell ill, died, or transmitted the virus to loved ones. A University of California study found that death rates for food and agricultural workers increased by 38%.

In fact, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has long criticized low staffing levels at Cal-OSHA. California’s outdated and cash-strapped agency couldn’t effectively keep workers safe in 2019. Without a major overhaul and update, it won’t be able to keep workers safe in 2022 and beyond. But the solutions are not hard to find.

Cal-OSHA must first staff up and diversify in order to meet the challenge of protecting today’s workplaces. According to the California Labor Federation, California has only one inspector for every 103,000 workers — about one-quarter the level of Oregon and Washington.

Bilingual inspectors are spread twice as thin. The agency’s parent Department of Industrial Relations has struggled to fill more than 100 vacancies, and Gov. Gavin Newsom has authorized 70 more for Cal-OSHA. These positions must be filled quickly with a diverse, multilingual workforce that has the tools to connect with today’s workers and employers.

Cal-OSHA must also look ahead to new threats to worker’s safety — such as the dangers caused by heat and pandemics. The agency’s rule-making process, particularly for chemical hazards, is so ponderous it cannot remotely keep up with regulating the thousands of chemicals that today’s workers are exposed to on the job.

The California Environmental Protection Agency already conducts a toxicity assessment process; Cal-OSHA should move to regulate those substances. The state must enact Senate Bill 410 and its important, targeted regulatory reforms.

Lastly, California must empower Cal-OSHA to levy meaningful fines and collect them. A Sacramento Bee investigation found that employers have paid just 3% of fines assessed for failing to protect workers from COVID-19. The rest have ignored their responsibility or ensnared the agency in a lengthy appeals process.

Employers can break the rules with impunity when they know Cal-OSHA lacks the power to enforce them. The public record of COVID-19 citations issued to date makes clear that evading worker safety measures is not a problem for just a few bad apples. The weakness of Cal-OSHA has allowed mainstream employers to evade basic worker protections.

Cal-OSHA’s new chief must be an advocate for worker safety committed to embracing reform, transparency, and accountability both for the agency and employers.

Unless California empowers its workplace safety watchdog, the end of the pandemic will not mark the end of the crisis. It will instead mark a new normal where California turns its back on workers, leaving them vulnerable to workplace illness and injury.

This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 8:00 AM.