Report: State Fails to Track Workplace COVID Cases

Wednesday, February 3, 2021 | 0

The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday reported that California’s workplace safety agency has incomplete data on COVID-19 infections and deaths that likely excludes essential workers who contracted the disease at work.

California employers have reported about 1,600 serious illnesses and deaths to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health as of mid-December. Inspectors determined that 779 of the cases reported arose from workplace exposure to the new coronavirus.

“Worker-safety advocates and elected officials say the absence of a reliable count of serious on-the-job infections by Cal/OSHA creates significant consequences,” the Bee reported. “The agency relies on employers to self-report workplace infections, and the incomplete statistics could put workers and their families at greater risk because the state has no clear picture of where COVID-19 workplace hot spots may have flared up.”

The Bee said the data Cal/OSHA has paints an unlikely picture of what’s happening in workplaces throughout the state. The data includes only four serious confirmed cases at poultry processing plants. Meanwhile, 17 cases were recorded for the attorney general’s office in Sacramento.

Ruiz Foods, a frozen-food company in Tulare County, had 174 employees catch the disease in May. While the Bee says it is not clear whether any of them became seriously ill, Ruiz Foods is not named on the Cal/OSHA list.

The Bee said Cal/OSHA has struggled with staffing problems for years. Still, the agency has assessed $2.7 million in fines on more than 100 employers that violated COVID-19 safety rules.