California’s worker safety agency is under-inspecting workplaces after accidents and worker injuries, failing to enforce labor regulations in a way that “may undermine” them because it does not have enough employees to do the inspections, a state audit found.
In a review of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health published Thursday, state auditors found understaffing was a primary factor leading inspectors to skip in-person inspections of worksites even in cases where auditors found — and division managers agreed — it was likely warranted.
Nearly one-third of the division’s 800-plus positions were vacant last year, a rate that is even worse in some district offices and among some of the staff responsible for inspections and enforcement…