Job Safety Is Good for Business

Officials of the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA as it is commonly known, made a good move in deciding to dramatically increase the number of its inspectors who monitor manufacturing companies in Southern California. But the action came only in response to criticism that the chief state agency charged with protecting workers is doing a very poor job.

Cal/OSHA’s decision was prompted by investigations in the Legislature, following a Times investigation of the agency. Reporter David Freed found that Cal/OSHA rarely inspected factories in the Los Angeles region.

At least partly as a result of such official neglect, manufacturing workers in this region, most of them Latinos, are being injured on the job in disproportionately high numbers: 67% of the workers killed in manufacturing accidents in Los Angeles County in 1988-92 were Latino, for example.

Cal/OSHA announced this week that 35 new inspectors will be hired statewide by next spring and 30 of them will be assigned to the Los Angeles region. In addition, eight inspector positions that had been frozen due to state budget problems will be filled in the region.

It should go without saying that any new inspectors should be conversant in Spanish or in one of several Asian languages so they can effectively communicate with immigrant workers and small business owners.

Those newly hired safety engineers will join 89 Cal/OSHA inspectors who currently police six heavily populated counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside, San Diego and Kern.

At Cal/OSHA’s current manpower, the agency has only one inspector for every 409 manufacturing facilities. So the 38 new hires will not make much of a dent in the workplace dangers existing in what amounts to the state’s manufacturing heartland.

But it’s a start. And that is to the credit of Gov. Pete Wilson, who is trying to improve the business climate in California. Cal/OSHA’s problems date back to previous governors who gutted an agency that some of their business supporters found bothersome. Wilson seems to understand that workplace safety, because it promotes productivity and high morale, is good for business.