The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board lost a “bright light” with the passing of Bernardine Osburn, 72. She was known to all as Bernie, and for her sweet, friendly demeanor. Osburn was a 21-year associate governmental program analyst for the Board and served 32 years total in state employment. “She played an outsized role …
DART rates – “Days Away, Restricted or Transferred” – are down in California, according to the 2025-26 High Hazard Industry List, just released by Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The list, which follows on the next two pages, is for the new fiscal year, which began on October 1st. The list is established …
It has been an article of faith around these parts that “Cal/OSHA” refers to all of the components of the state program, but a recent note from the communications team at the Department of Industrial Relations throws this assumption into question. In a recent Cal-OSHA Reporter article about the adoption of the Confined Spaces in …
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board declined a request from an advocacy organization for emergency protections for agricultural workers from avian influenza. However, the Board did approve an advisory committee to study possible reforms to its standard for zoonotic transmissible diseases, General Industry Safety Orders §5199.1. The emergency request came from Valley Voices, an activist organization involved …
California’s residential construction industry is not going to get the revisions it has long sought in the wake of the six-foot fall protection rule imposed upon California by Fed-OSHA. But it will have a chance, though limited, to argue for changes that could make compliance with the controversial regulation easier. The Cal/OSHA Standards Board officially …
At the close of last week’s marathon Joint Legislative Hearing in the wake of a critical State Auditor’s report on Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, chairman John Harabedian concluded, “Cal/OSHA not only has a staffing problem, it has a leadership problem.” It doesn’t appear that comment presages a change at the top of …