Worksafe: Safety, Health, and Justice for Workers September 25, 2014 For the past two legislative cycles, and for years before that, Worksafe has fought to close a dangerous loophole in the law that’s put workers lives in danger. This week, we won! Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1634, co-sponsored by Worksafe and the State Building and Construction Trades Council, and authored by Assemblymember Nancy Skinner. Before AB 1634: Employers received a reduced penalty for fixing a cited hazard, at the time of the citation, without any proof that they had fixed (“abated”) the hazard. After 1634: An employer can only receive the penalty reduction for fixing a hazard if the cited hazard is actually fixed. Before AB 1634: Employers were automatically allowed to avoid fixing a cited hazard until they had exhausted all of their multiple appeals options. This can drag on for years while people’s lives are on the line. After AB 1634: Employers are required to fix the most serious hazards in a more timely manner; they can put abatement on hold only during the first appeal. Examples of tragic consequences resulting from delays in fixing dangerous conditions are not hard to come by. In 2003, Rosa Frias, a worker at Bimbo Bakeries in South San Francisco, lost most of her arm in a bread-making machine. Cal/OSHA cited the employer, who appealed. Over the next six years, the hazard that cost Rosa her arm led to five more preventable amputations. In April of last year, temp worker David Eleidjian was pulled into an unguarded machine at a Bay Point manufacturing plant and killed. Six months earlier, the employer was cited when another worker at the same plant was seriously injured on a similar machine; the citation was under appeal at the time of Eleidjian’s death. And, during the BART strike last October, Chris Sheppard and Laurence Daniels, were struck by a train while working on the tracks under a BART policy that made them responsible for their own safety. That same policy was the focus of a citation from five years prior, following the death of another BART worker, James Strickland. This citation, too, was under appeal. These are clearly preventable injuries and deaths that never should’ve happened - and would have been prevented if the employers had fixed the hazards that inspectors found. We can’t bring back those we’ve lost, or undo the terrible injuries others have endured, but we can push forward with overdue, commonsense reforms like this one. THANK YOU to the many unions, advocates, and legal aid organizations that supported this bill, as well as Assemblymember Nancy Skinner for her tenacity in this long struggle. We’d especially like to thank those of you who stood with us and signed postcards to your legislators in support of this bill. If you received this email from a friend, you can sign up to receive updates from Worksafe by visiting our website - just enter your information in the sidebar under Sign up for our newsletter! Like us on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! Visit us on YouTube! Check out our photos on Flickr! Donate!
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 19:33:44 +0000
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