SOMIS : Citation Dismissed Against Packing Plant

State officials have dismissed a $27,000 citation issued to a Somis packing plant for allegedly failing to insure workers against on-the-job accidents.

The Ojai-Tapo Citrus Assn. had a valid workers’ compensation policy when it was cited last month, said Jose Millan of the state labor commissioner’s office.

“We were assuming they didn’t have it because they didn’t have proof,” Millan said Wednesday. “We don’t have the option of not issuing a penalty when there is no proof of insurance.”

Ojai-Tapo was cited during a two-day review of Ventura County agricultural operations by the Targeted Industries Partnership Program, a statewide effort to enforce labor laws designed to protect farm workers and other laborers.

Al Bakalian, general manager of the packinghouse, said investigators were told at the time the citation was issued that the insurance policy was in effect.

And he said investigators refused to call the company’s insurance carrier to verify proof of insurance.

“I think they overreacted to our situation,” Bakalian said. “I felt they were playing to the crowd and they needed to have somebody on the front page to let the rest of the county know they were here.”

The statewide enforcement campaign has been criticized by farm worker advocates for its approach to labor law violations. Critics contend that the program focuses on workers’ compensation cases and other violations that require little investigation, while more egregious abuses receive little attention.

In the most recent Ventura County sweep, farm worker advocates say investigators could have been far more effective.

“If they had called us, we would have been able to direct them to situations where serious labor violations were going on,” said Eileen McCarthy, a lawyer with Oxnard-based California Rural Legal Assistance.