To protect working farm workers, California expands oversight of field conditions

California officials say they are introducing new enforcement actions to protect farm workers, including improved coordination between two state agencies charged with farm work conditions.

Actions follow the investigation of Capital & Main, produced in collaboration with the Los Angeles Times The McGraw Center for Business Journalismwhich found that the state failed to protect farm workers who work in difficult and dangerous conditions. Thousands of children and youth work in California’s fields to provide Americans with fresh fruits and vegetables. While workers as young as 12 work legally in agriculture, many explain that they are exposed to toxic pesticides, dangerous heat and other hazards.

New enforcement efforts will be resisted by the state Labor and Employment Development Agencywhich oversees key agencies responsible for enforcing child safety laws and workplace safety laws, officials said.

Authorities said the state’s field enforcement agency, which oversees child labor and wage and hour laws, is developing plans to implement legal joint labor and health services, known as cal/osha.

Inspectors from these two agencies often conduct fieldwork separately and apply different rules.

Working together will enable the state to “increase its presence in the fields and its ability to detect violations,” according to Crystal Young, the communications secretary.

The agency is also looking at an effort to share information between enforcement teams in departments such as the Board of Agriculture, the Department of Tourism and Employment and Financial Development. Information sharing, said Msha, will continue to strengthen our ability to identify potential investigative violations. “

In a written statement, he said that federal officials have actively enforced labor laws in every industry in every industry, inspecting 571 factories that have led to “millions of dollars in savings” from 2024.

But records obtained under the California Public Records Act at the time show that only a small number of cases of forced child labor involved the agricultural industry. Only 27 child abuse citations have been issued to thousands of agricultural employers across California, records show. The fine was set at $36,000, but the State collected only $2,814.

CAL / OSHA Enforcement records show that the agency failed to investigate many complaints about violations of California’s outdoor law and reports of outdoor heat injuries, and a 74% drop in offers to agricultural employers with all interventions. The heat law requires employers to provide safety training and cool water and shade when temperatures exceed 80 degrees.

The Maltese advocate plans for more enforcement as a direct measure. But they added that any long-term solutions need to address issues such as low wages and poverty, both of which drive children to work in the fields to help their families pay the rent and put food on the table.

“Being able to support farmworker families with a living wage, you know, is one of the ways we can respond to this magazine,” said Erica Diaz-cervantes, 25, a former Underberry Strener employee who is now Senior policy advocate The Central Coast Alliance is associated with a stable economy. With a higher salary, “children will not feel this responsibility to help their family financially by working in the fields,” he added.

Other efforts are underway, nationally and in California, to address issues involving farm workers.

US Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Palm Desert) It just re-issued the law That would change the federal minimum age for farm workers from 12 to 14 for most farm jobs, as well as strengthen nationwide data enforcement and mortality. California requires children as young as 14 to work in most cases but allows children as young as 12 to work 40 hours a week in agriculture when school is in session.

Assemblymember Donconly (D-San Rafael) said in a statement that he to order an audit Earlier this year to review issues such as inconsistent enforcement of California’s Pestiformia Regest Proteriction Protection, which is divided between local and state agencies.

A recent investigation analyzed more than that 40,000 Statistide aconforsement Records From 2018 to the beginning of 2024 it received a piecemeal regulation at the regional level. Records show that businesses operating in multiple counties have not been fined for hundreds of pesticide emergencies – many of them involving worker safety.

Under two farm workers and their parents said in interviews that they worked in the fields inhaling chemicals and described feeling sick and dizzy or suffering from skin irritation. The workers and their parents come from families with mixed immigration status, and capital and main only use their first names.

The audit, which is expected to be completed next year, “will help us to see if the need is made for other resources, legal and regulatory changes, or the strong concentration made by the Committee on environmentally safe and toxic substances.

Strawberry pickers, like in the Salinas Valley, squat and bend for hours on a summer day.

(Barbara Davidson / Capital & Main)

Connolly and Asseblermember Liz Ortega (D-San Leandro) said that the Department of Pesticides, should develop educational drugs for workers under pesticides and how to report problems. Such information is intended for high school students to inform them about General Labor Rights.

“That’s one tool we can use in agriculture to keep these kids safe,” said Ortega, who chairs the Labor and Employment Committees and holds Hearing on Workplace Safety In the fields.

A spokesperson for the Department of Pesticides said the agency has pesticide safety information In many languages ​​for all who work on farms but do not do things for children.

Grassroots farm workers say such information is badly needed.

“Most of us don’t know what insecticides are, how they can harm our health or … what we should do to work safely,” said Lorena, 17, who was 11 years old in the Santa Maria Valley. He explained that he was exposed to chemicals that caused his eyes to burn and his skin to break out from time to time.

He said: “Having all the information in one easy flame,” he said, “can make it much easier for us to be able to see the dangers and know how to protect ourselves.”

Lopez is a freelance journalist and expat The McGraw Center for Business Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Pournal University University of New York. This article is about Capital & main produced in collaboration with the MCGRAW Center and supported by California Health Care Foundation once Fund for investigative journalism.