FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
IR #99-20
Thursday December 30, 1999

CONTACT:
Dean Fryer
(415) 703-5050

New Law Gives Cal/OSHA More Punch

SAN FRANCISCO --The California Department of Industrial Relations' Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) is preparing to carry out AB 1127, which was signed into law by Governor Davis on Oct. 6, 1999. Authored by Assemblymember Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), the bill makes statutory changes in the Cal/OSHA regulations, effective Jan. 1, 2000.

"AB 1127 will greatly increase the effectiveness of Cal/OSHA's enforcement efforts, and in doing so, increase the safety and health protections afforded to California's workers," said Cal/OSHA Chief John Howard.

Major changes include:

• Increasing the maximum statutory civil penalty for a serious violation from $7,000 to $25,000. A serious violation exists if there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a violation, including, but not limited to, exposures exceeding the permissible exposure limit or conditions that exist from practices, means, methods, operations, or processes in use at the workplace.
• Increasing the maximum penalty for a failure-to-abate violation from $7,000 to $15,000 a day. Failure to abate exists when evidence obtained by Cal/OSHA demonstrates that the employer failed to correct a previously cited violation by a specified date.
• Deleting the longstanding statutory exemption for government entities from imposition of Cal/OSHA civil penalties, including failure-to-abate penalties.
• Increasing the criminal penalties for certain Cal/OSHA violations. This increases the fines and prison terms that a court may impose for certain Cal/OSHA violations.

  Further information on the implementation plan for AB 1127 can be found on the department's Web site at www.dir.ca.gov.