"California has sharply cut its enforcement of heat-protection laws for outdoor laborers while extreme heat has intensified in recent years — endangering farmworkers, construction workers and others who toil in scorching temperatures — an investigation by the Los Angeles Times and Capital & Main has found.

From 2017 to 2023, the number of field inspections conducted by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, dropped by nearly 30%, according to agency data. The number of violations issued to employers in that period fell by more than 40%.

Worker advocates say the numbers show a failure to adequately enforce California’s landmark outdoor heat-illness law, which was enacted nearly two decades ago after several farmworkers died in San Joaquin Valley fields. The law requires protections such as providing break areas with shade and “pure, suitably cool” water as “close as practicable” to workers when temperatures exceed 80 degrees."

Robert J. Lopez reports for the Los Angeles Times August 15, 2024. [2]