California Farmworkers Call For More Employers to Comply with Heat-Illness Prevention

California farmworkers who say they’ve faced dangerously hot worksites spoke Monday in support of a bill that seeks to protect them from extreme heat.

The proposed legislation, SB 1299, would make it easier for agricultural laborers to win workers’ compensation claims for heat-related illnesses or deaths. Opponents of the bill, which faces a legislative deadline this week, said it could lead to unfair costs for employers even if they comply with existing worker protections. But supporters hope it will save lives by boosting compliance.

Many farmworkers are low-wage immigrants who are reluctant to complain to state authorities about problems at their worksites because they fear losing their jobs. Erika Barros, who experienced heat stroke symptoms in June while picking tomatoes on a day when the temperature surpassed triple digits, didn’t know she had the right to rest breaks in the shade.

She said her employer, Ruiz Farm Labor, did not provide any training on heat illness prevention as required by state state law.

“Workers have rights when it’s hot, but those rights aren’t good for much if bosses don’t respect them,” Barros, 32, said in Spanish at a press conference in Sacramento. “That’s why I’m here today because I want things to actually change. We don’t want to risk our lives when we go to work.”

On Monday, workers in agriculture, fast food, airports and other industries across the U.S. kicked off “Heat Week,” a campaign led by the Service Employees International Union. The union is calling on the Biden Administration to implement recently proposed nationwide protections for both indoor and outdoor workers and on employers to voluntarily do more to keep staffers safe.

Nearly 500 workers in the U.S. died from heat-related causes from 2011 to 2022, and almost 34,000 injuries and illnesses resulted in days away from work, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers in agriculture are much more likely to die from heat-related stress than in other industries, according to research, partly because of the strenuous physical work they often do in direct sun.

After four workers died from heat illnesses in 2005, California became the first state to require employers to offer drinking water, shade and rest breaks at outdoor worksites when the temperature exceeds 80 degrees. However, agricultural laborers still died or got sick from excessive heat, though how many exactly is hard to pinpoint.

About 15% of farmworkers reported employers never provided enough breaks or shade when it was 80 degrees or warmer, according to a survey of 1,200 agricultural workers published by UC Merced researchers in 2022.

The state agency tasked with enforcing workplace safety rules, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, has struggled for years with severe understaffing. More than one in three of the agency’s enforcement positions remained vacant in June.

“The enforcement-only approach is not enough, and we have seen it,” said Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers, which is sponsoring SB 1299. “Every year, the UFW receives complaints from workers who are experiencing dangerous, out-of-compliance workplaces during extreme heat. The question has been what to do about it. And we believe that SB 1299 is the best path forward.”

The state Senate passed SB 1299 in May, and the state Assembly’s Appropriations Committee is expected to decide on Thursday whether to advance the measure to a full floor vote.

It can often be difficult for workers to prove that a heat illness was developed at their job. According to the proposed legislation, authored by state Sen. Dave Cortese (D- San Jose), a farmworkers’ heat-related illness or death would be presumed to have occurred on the job if a worker or a surviving relative proves the employer was not following heat safety regulations. Employers would have an opportunity to rebut claims.

A long list of agricultural and business groups, as well as some insurance carriers, oppose the bill. Bryan Little, who directs employment policy at the California Farm Bureau, worries that the Workers Compensation Appeals Board, rather than experienced inspectors at Cal/OSHA, would decide whether an employer violated heat regulations if SB 1299 becomes law.

“People by and large are in compliance and doing the things that the heat prevention standard requires them to do,” said Little, who has led dozens of employer trainings on the state’s heat rules. “A lot of our employers are not always perfect in their compliance, but they’re working very hard at it and training their employees and training the supervisors, and making sure that everyone understands how we protect ourselves.”

Heat illness can develop gradually over days, and workers may get sick due to other activities or pre-existing conditions, he added.

“It’s a terrible thing when someone suffers from a heart attack in the months between April and September, but that doesn’t mean that every heart attack that someone suffers from is heat-related,” Little said.

Barros, a mother of three, said she shivered and felt nauseous — both symptoms of the body overheating — while working in a tomato field in Yolo County on June 6. The temperature reached 105 degrees. She and five co-workers ended up leaving the worksite near Winters after checking in with a supervisor. When they returned to work the next day, Barros said they were fired.

Cal/OSHA is investigating Ruiz Farm Labor over workplace safety. The California Labor Commissioner is also investigating the business for potential retaliation.

A Cal/OSHA spokesperson told KQED in a statement that the agency is working to increase hiring and create a new, first-ever agricultural unit to significantly expand enforcement, with new offices planned in Salinas, Bakersfield, Fresno and other communities to better protect workers.

Heat inspections by the agency increased last year, as compared to 2021, according to the spokesperson.