Job Safety

The Times carried an article (March 14) stating that Cal-Occupational Safety and Health Administration has announced that the companies that were involved in the death of three construction workers in downtown Los Angeles last December may be fined as much as $560.

This proposed penalty shows three things:

1--Cal-OSHA appears powerless to enforce safety for construction workers.

2--Employer will continue to expose their workers to serious industrial hazards unless they have genuine fear of the consequences.

3--The only hope for the reduction of such tragic accidents in the future is that the widows and children of the workers who were killed will be awarded substantial damages by juries for these deaths, and that the involved companies will then have to think differently about their future safety practices.

LEONARD H. MANDEL

Wilmington