DIR Hands Out Large Fine For Farmworker's Death

A Merced farm labor contractor has been slammed with six citations and hit with a $262,700 fine in connection with the death of a 17-year-old farmworker who died in May of heat stroke.The Department of Industrial Relations’ Division of Occupational Safety & Health issued the citations and fines - the largest assessed to an agricultural firm since heat-illness prevention regulations went into effect in 2006.Maria Vasquez Jiminez died two days after working a nine-hour shift in a vineyard and collapsing. No shade and little water were available to her prior to her collapse, the DIR sai...