State audit cites Cal/OSHA investigation and staffing failures; lawmakers press for stronger enforcement

State auditors and lawmakers on multiple legislative committees said California’s worker-safety regulator has systemic problems that limit its ability to protect employees, including slow or missing on-site inspections, heavy reliance on employer self-investigations and frequent reductions of fines with little documentation.

The state auditor, Grant Parks, told a joint oversight hearing that his office’s review of Cal/OSHA (the Division of Occupational Safety and Health) found inconsistent decisions about whether to inspect complaints, frequent delays in beginning inspections, paper-based case files that are sometimes incomplete or destroyed, and outdated guidance for investigators.

The audit covered a five‑year period through fiscal 2023–24 and included a review of 60 selected case files, analysis of complaint and fine data, and a comparison of Cal/OSHA fine calculations with the auditor’s recalculations. "These root causes ... limit Cal OSHA's ability to protect workers," Parks said, summarizing the report’s findings.

Why it matters

Lawmakers repeatedly framed the audit’s findings as a public‑safety issue. Chairwoman Lorena Ortega, who requested the audit, described multiple workplace deaths in her district and urged structural change beyond hiring more staff. "Is that what a life is worth in California?" Ortega asked, citing an example in which Cal/OSHA fines totaled about $18,000 for three fatal cases — approximately $6,000 per worker killed.

Timeliness, inspections and letters

The audit found that Cal/OSHA received about 10,500 valid complaints in fiscal 2023–24 and opened on‑site inspections in only about 20% of those cases, relying on so‑called "letter investigations" more than 80% of the time. In a letter investigation, auditors explained, Cal/OSHA asks the employer to investigate and report back; these letters do not result in fines. Nick…