California’s farmworkers–and all workers throughout the state-need a strong and functional state enforcement apparatus to protect workers’ rights now more than ever. Unfortunately, staff vacancies within Cal/OSHA, the State’s health and safety enforcement agency, threaten workers laboring in dangerously high temperatures, toxic wildfire smoke, and public health emergencies to put food on our tables. Luckily, the CA Farmworker Coalition, in partnership with a broad array of worker organizations and labor unions, proposed AB 694, authored by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, which would create a pathway for inspectors with invaluable experience yet no college degrees.
California’s farmworkers face serious risks when Cal/OSHA lacks the staff and language capacity to enforce existing health and safety laws. Despite the state’s strong worker protections, understaffing and limited linguistic accessibility mean many violations go unchecked.
As of December 2024, nearly 43% of Cal/OSHA field inspector positions were vacant, leaving just one inspector for every 121,000 workers—far worse than Oregon’s 1:24,000 and Washington’s 1:26,000. With fewer inspectors, serious violations often go unpunished, weakening deterrence and putting workers in danger.
Farmworkers, who produce three-quarters of the nation’s fruits and nuts, suffer injuries at twice the rate of other workers and face higher fatality rates. Many are immigrants or Indigenous workers who speak languages other than English, yet only 10 inspectors statewide are certified bilingual. Advocates have emphasized how this gap prevents workers from reporting unsafe conditions or understanding their rights.
With extreme heat days expected to increase sevenfold in the Central Valley due to climate change, the lack of enforcement poses growing risks. As advocates have warned, protecting the families who feed California must be treated as an emergency—because when the most vulnerable workers are left unprotected, everyone’s health and safety is at stake.
California has faced a long-standing shortage of Cal/OSHA safety inspectors, leaving the state’s workplace safety system stretched thin. AB 694 aimed to tackle this problem by addressing the root causes of the hiring and retention crisis—outdated job requirements and the lack of clear career pathways for skilled workers.
The bill would have created an Advisory Committee and study to find ways to expand and diversify Cal/OSHA’s Compliance Safety and Health Officer workforce. This included developing a training program for people without college degrees and partnering with labor unions, worker advocates, and universities to recruit candidates from a wide range of industries.
UC Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program and UCLA’s Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program were set to lead this effort, bringing together experts to identify barriers and recommend solutions to build a stronger pipeline of safety inspectors.
AB 694 also proposed a $1.25 million investment from the Occupational Safety and Health Fund—a small portion of the fund’s $200 million reserve—to support this work.
Although AB 694 did not move forward, it underscored the urgent need to rebuild and diversify California’s workplace safety enforcement team to better protect workers across the state.