|
CAPS – California
Association of Professional Scientists |
|
Website:
www.capsscientists.org |
Released 2/9/06 at 10:00 am |
|
Contacts: |
Statewide
representative – Matt Austin, 415-861-6343
Oakland local
representative – Garrett Brown, 510-622-2913 |
Cal/OSHA Inspectors
Union Identifies Chronic Understaffing As A Root Cause of Cal/OSHA
Enforcement Problems at the San Francisco – Bay Bridge Project
Chronic understaffing
of Cal/OSHA, the state’s workplace health and safety agency, is
a key cause of the serious enforcement problems detailed in the
State Auditor’s office probe of safety complaints at the San
Francisco Bay Bridge project that was released today. (See
Bureau of State Audits Report 2005-119 at
www.bsa.ca.gov/bsa/).
“Cal/OSHA does not
have enough field inspectors to meet its day-to-day
responsibilities, let alone effectively investigate complaints
at a huge project like the Bay Bridge retrofit,” charged
representative Matt Austin of the California Association of
Professional Scientists. “A compilation of the agency’s own
organization charts shows that there are only 169 Cal/OSHA
inspectors in the field for an economy of 17.9 million workers
and more than one million workplaces.”
“Cal/OSHA’s
worker-to-inspector ratio is double that of Federal OSHA’s
ratio, worse still than neighboring states like Oregon and
Washington, and dramatically worse than Canadian provinces like
Ontario and British Columbia,” Austin pointed out. “In fact,
there are 66 more Fish and Game Wardens in California than there
are Cal/OSHA inspectors.”
“The Bay Bridge is an
enormous, 10-year project that could keep a full-time team of
inspectors busy morning, noon and night. Instead, Cal/OSHA has
only had the resources over the last three years to send out
individual inspectors on pre-announced, rotating visits about
once every other week. The eight inspectors involved, and their
supervisors, all have major responsibilities in their home
offices, and none were dedicated full time to the bridge,”
Austin explained. “This is how important things – like worker
complaints – fall through the cracks.”
“California workers,
including those at the Bay Bridge, deserve to have at least as
many Cal/OSHA inspectors as there are state Fish and Game
Wardens,” Austin declared, noting that there are currently 29
vacant, funded Cal/OSHA positions and another 37
federally-authorized positions which remain unfilled. To have
the same inspector-worker ratio as Fed OSHA had in April 2004,
Cal/OSHA should really have 306 inspectors. In fact, Cal/OSHA
had only 169 inspectors in the field in January 2006.
“The tragic
consequences of years-long understaffing of safety agencies was
seen in the coal mine disasters in West Virginia last month
where 14 miners died and the federal Mine Safety and Health
Administration had abolished 190 inspector positions,” Austin
warned. “Cal/OSHA is an agency headed for crisis if the
understaffing and lack of resources is not immediately
reversed.”
Given the Governor’s
proposal for massive infrastructure rebuilding projects in
California, the protection of construction workers on huge
public works projects is a key issue for the future. “Clearly
Cal/OSHA must learn the lessons of mistakes made at the Bay
Bridge, but it cannot function without the staffing and
resources required to protect workers at similar projects in the
future and in all California workplaces,” Austin stated.
In addition to field
inspectors, there are other current deficiencies of the safety
agency:
