U.S. Assumes Worker Safety Role in State

After months of anticipation and controversy, the federal government Wednesday assumed responsibility for safety and health enforcement at about 600,O00 California job sites, an action backed by Gov. George Deukmejian as a major savings to state taxpayers but attacked by critics as hazardous to 11 million workers.

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, was displaced in its jurisdiction over the state’s private-sector workers just as Deukmejian promised five months ago. The governor said the move will save the state $8 million and result in no decrease in job safety. Opponents of the plan bitterly contested that assertion and sought unsuccessfully to reverse the governor in the courts and by influencing public opinion.

Federal safety inspectors set up shop in five locations around the state Wednesday. Some of the offices were so new--such as the one in West Covina--that there were not even identification signs posted, but inspectors were out at job sites and a handful of complaints were fielded.

The federal officials also were anxious to counter claims by critics that federal safety standards will be less effective than the state rules they supplant.

Level of Protection

“We are at least beginning with the assumption that California employers have no intention of reducing the level of protection that the (state) standards require of them and, in fact, to do so, would be a great risk,” said Frank A. White, deputy assistant secretary of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, who was in San Francisco Wednesday for the transition.

“There seems to have been an assumption that because federal OSHA may not have standards in areas California does that federal OSHA does not have the ability to assure a full level of protection. I’d like to correct that assumption,” he said.

Jerry Ryan, the new federal administrator in San Diego, made a similar statement.

“I think it’s a little bit premature to say that the federal program is ineffective. At least give us a chance to prove ourselves,” he said.

The federal officials took over even though the state job safety agency technically remained in business Wednesday. Deukmejian has promised to veto funding for Cal/OSHA, thus abolishing it, when the new state budget, adopted by the Legislature Wednesday, gets to his desk. Meanwhile, state inspectors remain on the payroll and some even went out on inspections Wednesday.

The governor’s plan has been criticized by representatives of labor, medicine and public health who contend that the California agency had stronger enforcement powers than the federal program, including authority for immediate shutdown of an unsafe workplace, broader restrictions on cancer-causing chemicals and a specific ban on the use of the short-handled hoe in the state’s fields.

Typical of the criticism was that of Ruth Roemer, president of the American Public Health Assn., and adjunct professor of health law at UCLA, who accused the governor of abolishing “a proven, effective preventive program covering 11 million Californians in favor of a weak, underfunded, poorly enforced program.”

Deukmejian’s move has also been criticized by a number of his traditional business allies, who cite the fear of increased worker’s compensation payments stemming from more injuries and voice concern that the federal agency will be less accessible than the state office.

Nonetheless, the governor has not wavered, maintaining that federal OSHA could do as good a job as the state in protecting workers.

Not Enough Votes

Deukmejian left $8 million needed for Cal/OSHA operations out of his fiscal 1988 budget. Although the funds were restored by the Legislature, it is believed that there are not enough votes to override the expected gubernatorial veto.

After the veto, California would retain jurisdiction over the safety and health of state, county and municipal employees and for certain private-sector activities, such as elevator operations and amusement park rides.

The state Division of Safety and Health would have a budget of $19.8 million and a work force of 287 people, according to Richard Stephens, spokesman for the state’s Department of Industrial Relations.

About 360 state jobs will be vacated as a result of the federal takeover. Stephens said 143 staff members have already left and 44 others have been sent 30-day layoff notices, with others to follow. All but three of the state’s 28 field offices would close.

Gas Explosion

The state has had a worker safety program since 1913. The program was greatly expanded in 1973, two years after 17 men died in a methane gas explosion in a Sylmar tunnel construction project.

Federal officials began preparations for the takeover months ago and on Wednesday, formally opened new offices in Sacramento, San Diego and West Covina and added staff members at offices in Long Beach and Walnut Creek.

“We are fulfilling our mandate to ensure that working men and women in California are protected against workplace hazards,” said James W. Lake, acting OSHA regional administrator in San Francisco. “Our area offices are staffed with seasoned OSHA safety and health professionals drawn from around the nation who are dedicated to carrying out a strong enforcement program in the state.”

But the move comes at a time when federal OSHA is under fire for doing its job poorly. A draft report by the U.S. Labor Department’s inspector general’s office, made public last week, said the agency’s program to protect workers is riddled with “systemic weaknesses.”

Strict Penalties

The report said efforts to safeguard employees from hazards have been hampered by inadequate and untimely inspections, a failure to ensure that dangers are eliminated after they are discovered and a failure to impose strict penalties on employers who willfully and repeatedly break the law.

OSHA official White said the agency has “taken a number of steps to address those problems.”

The five transitional office sites that federal OSHA is utilizing were selected in areas where employers and workers are concentrated, according to Lake. He said the location of additional offices would depend on OSHA’s enforcement experience over the coming months. White said it was possible that the number of offices would ultimately be doubled.

The federal agency had 53 safety engineers and 43 industrial hygienists in the field Wednesday, compared to 130 safety engineers and 78 industrial hygienists who were on the state payroll when Deukmejian first announced his intention to eliminate Cal/OSHA at the beginning of the year.

Times staff writers Imbert Matthee in Walnut Creek, David Reyes in Long Beach and Gene Yasuda in San Diego contributed to this story.