California Labor Law: Heat Stress Regulation Designed to Prevent Death

Santa Clara, CA Although many employees consider labor law violations stressful, they do not consider that some violations put people's lives at risk. However, a lawsuit filed recently in California argues that a company's failure to obey the law cost a young, pregnant woman her life. California has enacted a heat stress regulation designed to prevent exactly this situation.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed by the family of the 17 year old girl who died in May. According to KSEE News, the victim had worked in a vineyard for more than nine hours that day and did not have access to shade or sufficient water breaks. A lack of access to sufficient water breaks and to shade violates California labor law.

The company that the victim worked for was shut down by officials after they learned that company continued violating heat stress prevention rules following the victim's death. The same company was fined in 2006 because of a failure to have a written heat stress prevention plan.

California adopted a heat stress regulation, the first state to do so, after 13 people died heat-related deaths in 2005. Under the regulation, employers are required to:

• Develop and implement written procedures on heat illness prevention;
  
• Provide heat illness training to all employees;
  
• Make readily available and encourage each employee to drink four eight-ounce cups of fresh water per hour; and
  
• Provide immediate access to shade or any cool area out of the sun for recovery periods for at least five minutes at a time.

Judges are taking California's heat stress regulation very seriously. Recently, a judge issued a temporary injunction against a labor contractor for failure to comply with heat stress laws. The company faces a lawsuit by farm workers who said they were not provided with proper water breaks or with shade while working in hot weather. The lawsuit seeks more than $25,000 in lost wages and benefits, as well as physical suffering and anguish.

Hot weather can be deadly to work in. That is why California has enacted the heat stress regulation. Many people endure desert-like heat while working outside in the summer in California, and they are at risk of serious illness and death. Unfortunately, some labor contractors are more interested in saving money than in keeping their workers safe and healthy.

Maybe they simply do not believe that workers' lives are at risk in the hot sun. Maybe they do not believe that they will be caught violating the regulation. Either way, when proper shade and water are not provided for outdoor workers, the workers are the ones who suffer.

If you or someone you love has been a victim of violations of California's heat stress regulation, or any other California labor violation, you may be eligible to file a lawsuit. Contact a lawyer to discuss your options.

California Labor Law: Contractors Who Don't Play By the Rules

Los Angeles, CA So you're a construction worker in California. And you've been following the news reports about the construction crane accidents in Manhattan, and even though you're not working on, or anywhere near a crane you wonder if everything is on the up-and-up with your employer. Well you have California Labor Law on your side.

You would be happy to know that there are various California labor laws and statutes that protect you from an abusive employer. You should also be happy to know that the Labor Standards Enforcement arm of the Labor Commissioner's Office keeps a close eye on things.

Witness a recent sweep involving 120 companies in all five counties over two days last month. Officials conducted random inspections May 14 and 15, and at the end of the two-day blitz issued 54 citations and levied more than $279,500 in fines against construction firms in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.

One of those companies may be an employer you work for, or may have at one time. You'll want to pay attention here, to what some of those citations were, given the realization that construction is an exact science requiring skill and expertise. It is also, at times, extremely dangerous. Workers have been injured, and killed.

So what were the citations?

Failure to provide itemized deduction statements to employees: This is an assault on your wallet. Without itemized deduction statements, you have no idea what items are deducted from your pay, and what they represent. What's to prevent an unscrupulous contractor from telling you one figure, paying out another and pocketing the rest?

Failure to provide workers' compensation insurance: The contractor might be saving himself some hassles, and some money, but what does this mean to you? What if you were injured on the job? There are all kinds of site risks and hazards inherent with the work, even with low-rise construction projects. You could step on a nail, or get beaned in the head. You could twist your back. Little did you know that your employer, the seemingly nice fellow who brings the coffee in the morning, has not bothered to provide workers' compensation insurance.

Failure to obtain a California contractor's license: This is a no-brainer. If you're a contractor, you must be licensed. Period. Sure, there is a cost for this??"but just imagine the potential costs, and the fallout that's possible without one? If a contractor isn't licensed, what impact does that have on the job at hand? The site? The ability to collect compensation, if you are injured on the job while working with, or for an unlicensed contractor?

"The construction industry, like all others in California, must purchase workers' compensation insurance and properly pay their employees," says California Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet. "Contractors are also required to be licensed, and those who operate outside the law have an unfair advantage over their competitors. It's our job to protect workers and level the playing field for those in the construction industry who do follow the law."

You don't have to have a construction crane fall on top of you at a major construction site, to be injured on the job. There is a myriad of hazards at every site??"and you need to protect yourself from an unscrupulous contractor who fails to play by the rules.

Especially if your life, and livelihood could be at stake.