Cal/OSHA to Add Factory Inspectors : Labor: Increase is response to reports of high injury toll among Latinos. County will get a share of 38 more officials.

Responding to criticisms that it has failed to adequately protect thousands of Latino factory workers, California’s occupational safety and health agency plans to dramatically increase the number of Cal/OSHA inspectors based in Southern California.

Agency chief John Howard said Tuesday that 38 compliance inspectors will be added by early next year to the 89 Cal/OSHA safety engineers and industrial hygenists who presently police Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, San Diego, Riverside and Bakersfield counties.

The additional inspectors, Howard said, will specifically target so-called “high hazard” employers--those whose workers are injured or killed with greater-than-average frequency.

Howard divulged details of the expansion plan after testifying before a hearing in Los Angeles of the state’s Senate Industrial Relations Committee that has begun investigating the enforcement of California’s labor laws, particularly as they relate to the safety of minority employees.

The hearing was called in response to a Times series in September which found that Cal/OSHA rarely inspects factories relying heavily upon Latino labor, and that Latinos in Los Angeles County factories are hurt at disproportionately high rates.

The Times also reported that while Southern California is home to nearly 20,000 factories and more than 875,000 manufacturing workers--the bulk of the state’s manufacturing workforce--proportionately far fewer Cal/OSHA inspectors are based here.

State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), whose request prompted Tuesday’s committee hearing, lambasted Cal/OSHA’s performance, saying that the agency “is falling down on the job.

“Our poorest, most defenseless workers,” Torres said, “are paying a price in terms of injury and even death.”

Torres said he believes that the state should substantially increase fines levied against employers who flagrantly violate worker safety, and that union representatives should be deputized to act as safety and health inspectors in the workplace. State safety officials who appeared at Tuesday’s hearing expressed skepticism in responding to Torres’ suggestions.

“I’m not sure that increasing penalties is an innovative way of enforcing worker safety and health,” said Lloyd W. Aubry, Jr., director of the state’s Department of Industrial Relations, which oversees Cal/OSHA.

Howard said that Cal/OSHA intends to hire 35 new inspectors statewide by next spring. Thirty will be assigned to an office in Southern California, either in Van Nuys or Anaheim. In addition, another eight inspector positions in the Los Angeles region which have remained frozen amid budget constraints also will be filled.

Moreover, Howard said, Cal/OSHA next year will open a new “consultation service” office in Anaheim and another somewhere in the San Fernando Valley to better provide employers advice on how to comply with the state’s worker safety and health regulations.

The actions “hopefully will have an effect” in reducing work-related injuries and fatalities, Howard said, “otherwise, we’re all wasting our time.”

Even with the presence of additional inspectors, several injured workers, union leaders, and others who appeared before the Senate committee said they doubted that much would improve without a greater willingness among manufacturers and other employers to improve the lot of their minority employees.

Committee chairman Sen. Patrick Johnston (D-Stockton) noted that various groups representing employers--including the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Manufactuers’ Association--were invited to appear Tuesday but either declined or did not respond. In the past, industry respresentatives have defended their safety record, saying that the vast majority of manufacturers in California do all they can to ensure the safety of all their workers.