The California Labor for Climate Justice (CLCJ), a group of 16 labor unions, is persuading state legislators to enhance Cal/OSHA implementation to protect employees from climate-linked hazards in the workplace, safeguard employees from climate-linked economic interferences, and increase implementation of Cal/OSHA compliance.
OSHA compliance is a must to safeguard employees throughout the United States by setting up a safe workspace, though certain states have followed their own security and health criteria, which offer comparable or better protections for employees. California was one of the states that first created an OSHA State Plan, also called Cal/OSHA.
California has recorded high temperatures in the past eight years. Many employees in California worked in areas with dangerous heat levels, both in indoor and outdoor settings. The state is implementing safety and health requirements for employees in outdoor settings to protect them against heat-linked problems. In July 2024, the state implemented the California Heat Illness Prevention in Indoor Places of Employment regulation, which set the same requirements for employees in indoor areas to protect them against heat-associated ailments. Although there are exclusions, most California workplaces must adhere to these requirements.
The Department of Industrial Relations’ division of Occupational Safety and Health enforces Cal/OSHA. Having said that, the enforcement division is short on staff, which impacts its capability to implement present policies and check unsafe work locations and implement Cal/OSHA compliance. At the rally and press meeting, Assemblymember Tina McKinnor stated that almost 50% of the enforcement division positions are unfilled, though its website claims that there is a 23% vacancy rate at this time
McKinnor and the CLCJ are urging legistlators to approve California Assembly Bill 694, which wants to deal with the present lack of employees in the enforcement division. The bill, which received bipartisan support, wants the department to work with Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program, the University of California, and the University of California, Los Angeles Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program to perform a research to assess the present understaffing and vacancies within the enforcement department, and to propose a good strategy to create a training program for safety inspectors.
Aside from enhancing Cal/OSHA enforcement, the CLCJ wants the legislators to strengthen workers rights, have stronger protection for employees against climate-linked risks, set up safety nets for employees displaced because of climate associated disasters, create guidelines to move to a clean energy market, and speed up job creation in the low carbon market, as detailed in the California Worker Climate Bill of Rights, a visionary program introduced by the CLCJ in October 2024.