Farmworkers union sues safety agency

The American Civil Liberties Union and the United Farm Workers Union filed a lawsuit Thursday against Cal-OSHA, alleging the agency is incapable of protecting the state's 650,000 farm laborers from heat injury and death.

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court cites as evidence six farmworker deaths last year, three more than the safety agency recognizes. It cites injuries of farmworkers this year and violations of laws that the agency's own inspectors have documented in recent months.

"We are grateful that the state has picked up its efforts, but Len Welsh, the head of Cal-OSHA, has said himself that Cal-OSHA is 'maxed out,' " said ACLU attorney Catherine Lhamon, referring to Welsh's comment that the agency doesn't have the staff to conduct more inspections.

 The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health has shut down 10 farm employers this year for heat-safety violations and has discovered more than 200 violations at outdoor work sites since July 11.

The lawsuit says Cal-OSHA's 187 inspectors are too few to inspect 1 million work sites, including 35,000 farms.

Filed on behalf of relatives of farmworkers who have died, the lawsuit calls the state's laws inadequate and accuses Cal-OSHA's Board of Appeals of undermining rules.

The board, the lawsuit notes, has cut fines imposed on heat-safety violators, in some cases to a few hundred dollars after fatalities.

"There's nothing to scare the bejesus out of these employers to get them to treat farmworkers like human beings," said UFW president Arturo Rodriguez.

Dean Fryer, Cal-OSHA spokesman, called the lawsuit "misguided." The agency, he said, has "systematically implemented our enforcement and outreach where it will have the greatest impact to address heat illness."

"There are still problems out there," Fryer said. "But we're beginning to see results. The culture of the workplace is changing."

Cal-OSHA's heat rules requiring drinking water and training were considered the nation's best when adopted in 2005 after a spate of fatalities.

But the lawsuit says they fall short. The U.S. military, it notes, imposes breaks on soldiers during extreme heat.

The state, it says, doesn't require employers to "decrease or halt work activities when heat stress approaches human tolerance limits."

Instead, the state relies on workers to ask for breaks, and many are reluctant because they are "fearful of being fired if they complain."

Rodriguez said legislative attempts failed that would have encouraged pro-rated compensation for piece-rate workers to encourage them to rest.