Stay safe at home when you can’t leave

Workers’ Rights and Wild-res

COVID-19 BROUGHTWITHITdangerous are also in desperate need of them to prevent contractconditions for farmworkers across California. ing COVID-19. As more masks are mass produced and As workers live and work in close quarters, the likelihood of spreading coronavirus increases for distributed throughout the United States, Cal/OSHA expects that farmworkers will have greater access to them in the middle of wild&re season. their communities across the state. In addition to these As an essential worker, you have the right to a safe concerns, agricultural workers now have to ba!le the work environment, especially in the age of coronavirus challenges brought by wild&re season and harmful, and unprecedented wild&res. If you suspect that your smoke-&lled air. employer is violating safety requirements like not enforc

Recent news reports revealed that many California farming social distancing, mask wearing, protective equipworkers are not being provided with the materials necessary to ment, or proper sanitation, consult the CDC’s guidance safely work, according to regulations instituted by the for agricultural workers and employers. (e California Occupational Safety and Health StanCDC and the U.S. Department of Labor dards Board (Cal/OSHA). One farmworking recently put together interim guidwoman, Antonia, explained that her employance for agriculture workers and ers only o#ered workers drinking water, employers. (e guide includes and did not provide any masks, gloves, information about exposure risks or other protective equipment which is a for farmworkers, hygiene and violation of the current laws. As a result, an sanitation recommendations, advocate &led an o$cial complaint on Anworker housing recommendatonia’s behalf with Cal/OSHA. Cal/OSHA tions, personal protective equipalso commented that it’s investigating multiple ment requirements, etc. complaints by California farmworkers, claiming that English: www.cdc.gov/ employers are not providing safe conditions or equipment coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/guidnecessary to comply with state laws. ance-agricultural-workers.html

In 2019, Cal/OSHA passed a regulation that required employSpanish: espanol.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/comers to provide outdoor workers exposed to wild&re smoke with munity/guidance-agricultural-workers.html N95 masks to prevent smoke inhalation and health problems. If you suspect that your employer is not following Cal/ (e regulation also requires that employers test the Air Quality OSHA health and safety requirements, workers can Index at the beginning of each shi" in areas exposed to a wild&re. &le a con&dential complaint via telephone or email If numbers reach an unsafe level, employers are required to do at with the local Cal/OSHA district o$ce. You can &nd least one of three things: relocate work to a safer outdoor locayour local o$ce’s contact information and complaint tion, provide an indoor location with clean air, or provide N95 instructions online in English or Spanish. masks if neither of those options are available. Employers are also English: www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/Complaint.htm. required to provide employee trainings on the risks of wild&re Spanish: www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/Spanish/ smoke, how to use a respirator, and employee rights outlined in Complaint.htm. the regulation. At the time that this regulation was passed, N95 Employees with work-related questions or complaints masks were in abundant supply and relatively inexpensive. (e can also contact Department of Industrial Relation’s Call pandemic has changed all of that. N95 masks went from roughly Center in English or Spanish at 844-LABOR-DIR (844- 75 cents per mask to at least $6 per mask, and healthcare workers 522-6734).