Workplace Safety

Lawmakers again passed a bill giving workers compensation to employees harmed by heat on the job. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar bill last year

Nearly a third of Cal/OSHA positions were vacant last year. A new state audit found that caused the agency to skip in-person inspections, even when workers were injured.

The state still hasn't fixed problems with its unemployment and workers compensation funds, both of which faltered during the COVID pandemic and haven't recovered.

After a man threatened an elementary school in her district, Assemblymember Darshana Patel wants to close a loophole in the law that makes it harder to prosecute threats against places than individuals.

Rocio Campos completed a four-year apprenticeship but still feels she has to prove herself. It shouldn't be so hard for women to get ironwork jobs, she says.

Employers and unions are grappling with the opioid crisis, while the state inches toward requiring Narcan in workplaces.

The state Labor Commissioner sometimes struggles to get back pay to workers when it reaches wage theft settlements. It tries social media, TV and hotlines. But money owed to employees is still sitting in state accounts.

California failed to ban private detention centers. Now, it’s focusing on their working conditions, for immigrants who toil for $1 a day.

California prison workers were wrongly excluded from indoor heat regulations passed earlier this year, despite facing brutal conditions that will only get worse in the coming decades.

The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board is about to pass long-awaited rules to protect workers from indoor heat. The governor’s office demoted the board’s chairperson and removed another member who criticized the administration.