Several key worker-safety bills in the California Legislature are advancing for imminent floor votes, while others -- including one that would have required a study on Cal/OSHA’s chronic staff-vacancy problems -- have stalled for the year.
November 15, 2026
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is contemplating new actions to reduce worker exposure to crystalline silica in the stone-fabrication sector -- in response to alarming increases in cases of silicosis, and deaths from the disease -- including stronger enforcement of safety rules and support for legislation requiring criminal charges against negligent shop owners.
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Worker-safety advocacy organizations are warning members of California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board that employees in the state -- especially agricultural laborers -- are likely to suffer from increased injuries and illnesses as a result of raids on employer operations by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
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The California State Auditor is finding major problems and deficiencies with the state OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) inspection and enforcement efforts, including closing complaints and accident reports without conducting on-site inspections, carrying out inadequate inspections, failing to ensure problems are fixed, and assessing inadequate fines.
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Employer-focused attorneys are ramping up warnings about the potential impacts to companies that will be required to comply with California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) legislatively mandated expansion of workplace violence-prevention rules, a draft of which is being scrutinized ahead of a July 14 comment period deadline.
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Industry and employer groups are charging that California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials are exceeding the requirements of a 2022 state law in proposing changes to the agency’s indoor and outdoor heat illness-prevention rules, including by tightening certain thresholds for when employers must take special actions to protect employees.
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California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is alerting businesses that for the first time, domestic workers employed by companies in California, such as housecleaners, caregivers and gardeners, will be covered by state workplace safety and health laws effective July 1.
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California lawmakers are advancing a narrowed, labor-backed bill to bar employers from relying on automated decision-making systems (ADS) to make certain employment decisions -- including those aimed at aiding worker safety -- without human oversight, despite ongoing opposition by employer and tech organizations.
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OSHA attorneys are reiterating their calls for a federal court to dismiss North Dakota’s suit challenging an agency investigation into alleged whistleblower retaliation by the state’s environment department, arguing that a federal court lacks jurisdiction and the state has no sovereign immunity from its enforcement action.
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As the Trump administration prepares to hear stakeholder views on a Biden-era OSHA rule setting heat-protection standards, groups in California are weighing a Cal/OSHA plan to strengthen the state’s heat illness-prevention standards as required by a 2022 law, which was prompted by fears of the potential impacts of hotter temperatures caused by climate change.
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