CalChamber Weighs in on Cal/OSHA Processes

A joint hearing of several legislative committees last week on the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) processes provided an opportunity for the California Chamber of Commerce to flag a few employer concerns about the agency.

In testimony at the August 27 joint hearing, CalChamber Senior Policy Advocate Robert Moutrie reiterated CalChamber support for efforts to keep workers safe. He highlighted the employer perspective about several items in the legislative audit of Cal/OSHA.

• The funding stream for Cal/OSHA. Moutrie pointed out that the agency has been funded by an assessment on employers since 2008. The legislative audit could not identify what had happened to funding that was supposed to go toward hiring people for unfilled positions. Given that the increased funding (a $20 million per year increase) is coming from employers, Moutrie called for more transparency in the allocation of those dollars because not knowing where they are going is troubling.
• Push toward more electronic records. Moutrie voiced agreement with the audit’s recommendation that more records be provided electronically. He noted that an attorney hired to resolve Cal/OSHA cases has said the ease of sharing electronic records works to benefit both worker and employer and will help the enforcement process.
• Workforce pipeline. Cal/OSHA has pointed to federal funding cuts as harming the pipeline of skilled specialists available. Losing federal grant funding, for example, has led to a shortage of funds to train industrial hygienists. Finding California funding for such training might be one answer to the issue, Moutrie said.

Moutrie leads CalChamber advocacy on occupational safety, tourism, insurance, legal reform, immigration and unemployment insurance, as well as representing employer interests on education issues.

As the CalChamber expert on occupational safety issues, Moutrie also is an expert on Cal/OSHA’s regulatory process and works closely with Cal/OSHA staff to make California’s regulations more feasible for businesses. Recently, he has represented employers’ concerns with Cal/OSHA during the drafting of California’s emergency and nonemergency wildfire smoke regulations, COVID-19 emergency and nonemergency regulations, and indoor heat regulation.