CAAA: Audit Exposes Deep Failures at Cal/OSHA

Wednesday, July 30, 2025 | 0

A scathing new audit of Cal/OSHA has found that critical understaffing and systemic failures are jeopardizing worker protections across the state.

Assembly Labor Committee Chair Liz Ortega, D-San Leandro, requested the audit after repeated reports of diminished enforcement and delayed inspections. The California State Auditor’s July 18 findings revealed that nearly one-third of Cal/OSHA positions were vacant in the last fiscal year, leaving inspectors unable to investigate serious workplace accidents and hazards in a timely and thorough manner. In fact, 82% of valid safety complaints were “investigated” only by letter, effectively forcing employers to police themselves rather than requiring on-site inspections.

The audit’s findings are deeply troubling. When the agency tasked with enforcing California’s worker safety laws fails to act swiftly or thoroughly, it leaves dangerous conditions uncorrected, putting more workers at risk. In several alarming examples, Cal/OSHA declined to inspect cases involving heat illness, serious chainsaw injuries and even skull fractures, citing insufficient resources.

The report also highlighted poor documentation, paper-based systems prone to errors, and prolonged delays in initiating inspections. These lapses are compounded by the fact that California cited only one-third as many serious violations as the national average, and 27% of repeated violations lacked proof of abatement, meaning known hazards often remain uncorrected.

Most egregiously, Cal/OSHA’s failure to conduct required on-site inspections for farmworkers facing extreme heat has resulted in an 85% reduction in fines for the repeated failure to provide drinking water, exposing workers to ongoing, preventable harm.

Cal/OSHA’s enforcement gaps also directly undermine litigation strategies and outcomes for injured workers. Attorneys often rely on the agency’s investigation records, inspection reports and citations as evidence in workers’ compensation cases. When inspections are delayed, poorly documented or never conducted, it deprives injured workers and their legal advocates of critical evidence needed to prove safety violations.

Worse still, even when fines are issued, they are often gutted. In the last five years, 8,362 fines were reduced by an average of 56%, with 75% of cases seeing reductions of $10,000 or more. Shockingly, 98.3% of serious cases between 2019 and 2022 were closed without a single referral for prosecution, creating little deterrence for repeat offenders. Lawmakers such as Ortega are calling for tougher enforcement, more criminal referrals and an end to what she described as “fake investigations.”

There are signs that the agency is trying to move in the right direction. Department of Industrial Relations spokespersons claim vacancy rates have recently dropped to 12% and that Cal/OSHA is modernizing its systems with a billion-dollar electronic data management upgrade slated for completion in 2027. But for workers facing unsafe conditions today, these long-term promises do little to address the immediate risks. Without sustained leadership, funding and a commitment to prioritize worker safety over employer convenience, California’s strongest labor protections remain hollow promises.

Cal/OSHA’s failures make the fight for justice steeper and more complex. For attorneys representing injured workers, it highlights the urgent need to gather independent evidence of unsafe conditions, push for greater accountability from employers and continue to demand systemic reforms within Cal/OSHA.

As the state wrestles with how to restore the promise of workplace safety, applicants’ attorneys will remain on the front lines, ensuring that the voices of those harmed by these failures are not silenced.

This opinion by the California Applicants' Attorneys Association communications team is republished, with permission, from the CAAA website.