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‘It’s just too bad we can’t undo the consequences of those violations’
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health has fined the company that employed a pregnant teenager who died of heat stroke this spring after working in a California vineyard $262,700 yesterday for violating eight workplace safety requirements.
It was the highest fine ever issued to a California farming operation, the Associated Press reported.
Here’s a quote from the story to remember:
“There was virtually a complete absence of shade or water, two of the very few tools that employers and employees have to fight the heat,” said Len Welsh, chief of the division known as Cal-OSHA. “It’s just too bad we can’t undo the consequences of those violations.”
True that.
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By Bruce
July 25, 2008 12:49 PM | Link to this
It is encouraging to see that California’s OSHA imposed a heavy fine on the company responsible for this. More large fines will alleviate the problem and force employers to protect vineyard workers from the risks of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. As I stated in a prior blog, when heat stroke occurs, it is nearly always because the victim has no way of escape. If an employer provides adequate shade and water, heat exhaustion and heat stroke will not occur. Therefore, blame employers 100% for injuries and deaths caused by heat stroke and hold them accountable.