Cal/OSHA Inspectors

* The Times’ support of our plan to add 38 Cal/OSHA inspectors to the greater Los Angeles region is appreciated. However, your Oct. 21 editorial is categorically wrong when it asserts that the decision was “prompted by investigations in the Legislature, following a Times investigation of the agency.”

It is simply beyond dispute that the decision to fund over 100 additional Cal/OSHA positions statewide, including 35 compliance inspectors, resulted from AB 110. This was the centerpiece in the workers’ compensation reform package that was passed by the Legislature last summer and signed by Gov. Pete Wilson on July 16 more than a month before David Freed’s series appeared. The Legislature created a targeted inspection and targeted consultation program funded by assessments on certain employers. The Legislature capped the cost at 50% of the current General Fund or about $8 million. In fact, Cal/OSHA recognized even earlier that more inspectors were needed in the south and began transferring additional field personnel from the north to the greater L.A. area in January of this year.

A major goal of worker’s compensation reform is to reduce the costs of this overly expensive system, and one of the best ways to reduce workers’ compensation costs is reduce the number of work related injuries and illnesses, a good example of Gov. Pete Wilson’s “preventative, not remedial” approach to government. The new Cal/OSHA positions that are being created will certainly assist employers in ensuring safe and healthy workplaces and eliminating potential hazards, especially in high hazard industries.

As you say, “Wilson seems to understand that workplace safety, because it promotes productivity and high morale, is good for business.”

LLOYD W. AUBRY JR.

Director, Dept. of Industrial Relations

San Francisco