A Cal/OSHA advisory committee met for two days recently to continue its deliberations about how or even whether to regulate the increasingly sophisticated autonomous technology used in agriculture. Proponents say the machines work better than a human mind in hazard recognition and eliminate many hazards created by having employees on tractors. Skeptics, mostly representing labor, …
The Office of Administrative Law and the Cal/OSHA Standards Board withdrew from consideration the âConfined Space in Construction Clean-upâ rulemaking, which the Board adopted in April. Board staff had to reword several sections. It issued a 15-Day Notice of Proposed Modifications. Stakeholder comments on the changes are due by August 25th. Pulling back a package …
Cal/OSHA, including the Enforcement Branch, the Consultation Service, and the Appeals and Standards Boards, will receive slight increases in the approved 2025-26 budget from what the governor proposed in May. The budget was finalized and signed into law at the end of June. The state Department of Finance recently released the details. The Cal/OSHA program …
Agriculture employers have been urging the Board to revise the current regulation about autonomous equipment, which dates back to the 1970s. In those days, self-propelled equipment was still in its rudimentary stages of development. Now, modern autonomous tractors, harvesters, cultivators, weeders, and other machines feature highly advanced electronics, imaging systems, and sensors to alert remote …