California Labor Chair Wants Audit of Workplace Safety Watchdog

The chair of the California Assembly’s Labor and Employment Committee says she will seek an audit of the state’s occupational health and safety authority following a hearing where farmworkers described regulators as understaffed, unresponsive, and out of touch.

The hearing Wednesday underscored how California’s reputation for progressive labor laws doesn’t necessarily translate to protections for workers—many of them immigrants—in the industry behind some of the state’s most iconic products, including its famed wine and the bulk of the world’s almonds.

Regulators said they are making progress in reducing the number of vacancies in their agencies and despite a deficit he ...