Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health has released draft language for its outdoor and indoor heat illness regulations aimed at harmonizing the regulations with each other. It’s unclear how the new changes relate to the enabling legislation, 2022’s AB 2243, but one thing is clear: The draft language would remove exemptions in the outdoor …
Three pieces of legislation of interest to California’s occupational safety and health community are advancing as the California Legislature heads to the end of its session. AB 2321, aimed at reforming procedures related to Cal/OSHA’s Bureau of Investigations, was, as Cal-OSHA Reporter went to press, close to passage in the state Senate. Recent amendments mean …
DOSH expenditures – including the Standards and Appeals boards – are pegged at some $290 million for the new fiscal year, which began in July, a 2% increase over 2025-26 expenditures. There were no budget cuts from last year. The budget includes funding for several budget change proposals (BCPs), such as the ongoing Cal/OSHA data …
Three bills of interest to the occupational safety and health community are moving forward in their houses of origin. They include AB 2321 regarding Cal/OSHA’s Bureau of Investigations (BOI); SB 1046 to protect outdoor workers along the southern border from “transboundary pollution”; and AB 2499, which seeks to protect both employees and inmate workers from …
AB 2321, Assemblyman Liz Ortega’s bill that would require local prosecutors to investigate fatality and total permanent disability cases, instead of Cal/OSHA’s Bureau of Investigations, is intended to “alleviate” BOI of some of its workload, the legislator says. Ortega, chair of the Assembly Labor and Employment committee, is a fierce critic of Cal/OSHA enforcement and …
At last August’s legislative hearing on the results of a critical audit of Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, Assemblyman Liz Ortega (D-Hayward) expressed special ire over the performance of the Bureau of Investigations (BOI). “When do you decide to hold an employer accountable,” following a workplace fatality, she asked DOSH Chief Debra Lee, …
As California’s legislative season sprouts, two bills of interest to the occupational safety and health community have been introduced. Neither appears particularly significant, but one should trigger some debate. That bill, AB 2499 by Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D-Gardena), would require Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health to submit a regulatory proposal to the Standards …
Sometimes it is simply impossible to watch a legislator – in this case, likely a well-intentioned but naïve one – introduce a bill that would delay solving the problem at hand, if not set back the affected Department’s significant progress. The legislator, Assemblyman Pilar Schiavo (D-Santa Clarita), has introduced AB 2488. It is a bill …