Heat-related farm deaths rise in California

'Can't sugar coat it'
One central California farm paid the state just $250 after a 38-year-old man died harvesting lettuce seeds, following the farm's appeal of a $13,500 penalty, according to records.

Welsh said his office has no authority over the appeals process, and said the department that collects fines from employers has been slow to respond.

"Collections has been a problem historically and we need to fix it. I can't sugar coat it," he said. "People have been dying all along every year for decades, and now that we're finally focusing on it we're finding all these heat fatalities. We're doing all we can with the very limited resources we have."

The highest-profile heat death in the fields has been that of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, a pregnant 17-year-old who died May 14. Authorities believe she collapsed because her supervisors denied her access to shade and water as she pruned white wine grapes for more than nine hours in nearly triple-digit heat.

'Unscrupulous employers'
Cal-OSHA recently hit the contractor in that case, Merced Farm Labor, with a $262,700 fine, the highest penalty the agency has ever issued to an agricultural firm, and state authorities now want to revoke the company's license. Merced has appealed the fine.

Outside of that incident, however, companies were fined an average of just $9,945 for farmworkers who died from 2005 to 2008, even in the case of "serious" violations. Merced's fine was higher because state officials concluded that its violations were deliberate.

State Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, an Alameda Democrat who sponsored a failed bill to give Cal-OSHA stronger enforcement powers, said the system is broken because employers don't have to fix hazards while the state's citations are being challenged.

"Unscrupulous employers can game the system by filing frivolous appeals," Swanson said. "We cannot expect our workers to endure a lengthy series of appeals, especially when people have actually died from these conditions."

Bryan Little, director of labor affairs with the California Farm Bureau Federation, said most growers strictly follow the rules and make a conscious effort to teach foremen how to watch for the signs of heat stroke.

Protecting workers
Heat deaths are a nationwide problem at work places including farms, construction sites and oil derricks. At least 34 farmworkers in the U.S. have died of suspected heat stroke between 2003 and 2008; 18 of those were in California.

California is one of 21 states that has its own worker safety program.

Before the current law took effect, there were no specific employer rules regarding heat illness although they were required to have an injury and illness prevention program. A string of 10 deaths — four of them farmworkers — in a two-month period in 2005 prompted regulators to toughen the rules.

California Farm Bureau's Little said giving the agency still more oversight won't keep people from dying.

"Is the purpose of Cal-OSHA to induce compliance and protect workers, or is the purpose to collect fine money from employers?" Little said. "Encouraging employers to settle gets the hazards abated more quickly, and gets employees protected more quickly."

Advocates argue that lowering penalties — even when a worker has died — renders the regulations toothless.

"I completely understand that Cal-OSHA is overworked and understaffed, but what's offensive is that the agency is reducing fines with no justification," said Michael Marsh, an attorney with the nonprofit California Rural Legal Assistance. "In some cases, companies are paying pennies on the dollar from the original fine imposed."

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