Millions in fines levied by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, businesses and their lawyers have delayed, filed appeals and attempted to broker deals where they “pay next to nothing,” according to a Sacramento Bee report.
The health board has ordered around $4.6 million in fines for 200 workplaces over failure to protect workers from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
The paper reviewed records of Cal/OSHA fines and payment data. According to their reporting, violations were generally related to “failing to maintain proper safety and training plans, lacking protective equipment such as masks or plexiglass barriers, and blowing past deadlines to inform regulators of coronavirus deaths — if they did so at all.”
The Bee filed a Public Records Act request and was told by the state that employers have paid only about 3% of the $4.6 million.
In May, Cal/OSHA found Foster Farms “[failed] to properly communicate, assess, correct, and train on COVID-19 workplace hazards” at the company’s Livingstone facility. Regulators issued citations and fines of more than $100,000 against the owner of the Farmer John slaughterhouse in Vernon and its subcontractor over 315 cases of coronavirus contracted by workers at the company’s plant back in November 2020.
Cal/OSHA began its investigation into Foster Farms’ Livingston location after receiving notice of an employee's death from COVID-19 complications.
Stephen Knight is the executive director of Worksafe, an employee-rights group. Knight told the Bee, “There’s essentially just a rejection of responsibility that’s deeper than we knew, and it’s very problematic for California workers.”
The lack of accountability for workers’ safety goes beyond California. A Reuters report found that Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued penalties amounting to $4 million on more than 300 workplaces nationwide. About two-thirds of those companies are not paying.
The acting head of OSHA, James Frederick did not directly respond to many of Reuters’ findings. He did say that the agency is “taking a hard look at enforcement efforts related to COVID-19.”