Cal/OSHA to Add Inspectors in Southland : Labor: The move comes after reports highlighted the high injury toll among Latino workers. A state Senate panel begins hearings on the problem.

Responding to criticism 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 hygienists who presently police Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Diego, Riverside and Kern 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 Senate’s 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 that 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 although the Los Angeles area is home to nearly 20,000 factories and more than 875,000 manufacturing workers--the bulk of California’s manufacturing work force--proportionately far fewer Cal/OSHA inspectors are based here than in other areas of the state.

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 the state should substantially increase fines levied against employers who flagrantly violate workers’ 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. Another eight inspector positions in the Los Angeles region that have remained frozen amid budget constraints also will be filled.

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

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 Manufacturers’ Assn.--were invited to appear Tuesday but either declined or did not respond. In the past, industry representatives 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.

Johnston said his committee will hold a second, similar hearing in early December, possibly in Stockton, to examine safety issues primarily affecting agricultural workers.

Meanwhile, government officials on the county and federal levels also are pursuing other remedial actions in response to The Times’ stories on abuses faced by Latino factory workers.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina has asked county health officials to come up with a plan that would reinstate, and possibly expand, a unit to monitor toxic exposures among factory workers and others. The state-mandated program was quietly phased out more than 10 years ago as a cost savings.

In Washington, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) last week drafted a letter to U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich, asking that Reich conduct hearings in Los Angeles.

“We cannot allow the safety of millions of Latino workers to be jeopardized any longer,” Becerra wrote. “The magnitude of the problem demands that the federal government become involved before an industrial disaster occurs. . . .”