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CAREER CORNER
Inspectors target businesses prone to safety, labor violations [by Michael Kinsman] You could almost feel Javier Baca’s blood pressure rising from across the room on a recent weekday morning as he looked at the four sober-faced men who had just entered his El Patio restaurant in Chula Vista, Calif.
Baca listened closely as the men introduced
“These are the industries where violations
The statewide crackdown on businesses
themselves as agents of the state Division of
are most commonly found,” Fryer says. “They
that don’t follow labor and safety laws ac-
Labor Standards Enforcement, Employment
also are industries that often employ large
celerated last summer when California Gov.
Development Department and Cal-OSHA.
numbers of immigrant workers.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger allotted $5.5 million
Baca, owner of the restaurant only since
On a one-day sweep of a Mexican restaurant,
Coalition, which is composed of state labor,
May, had never experienced anything like
a Mexican take-out shop, and Chinese and
employment and safety officials as well as
this. He scrambled to produce various docu-
Italian restaurants, only minor record-keep-
the U.S. Department of Labor.
ments and records and answer questions
ing and safety violations were noted.
for the Economic Employment Enforcement
The result is that 60 new investigators and
about his business. The day before, a similar restaurant check
support staff are available to check on pos-
Forty-five minutes later, Baca had a clean
resulted in $5,000 in fines and numerous
sible offenses.
bill of health and smiled as the state agents
safety violations. “This is really what we needed,” Silva says.
moved on. His worst sin had been to fail to return two floor mats to his restaurant
Similar sweeps were held in Los Angeles,
“We have had only five investigators in
kitchen after they had been cleaned earlier
Orange County and San Francisco.
Southern California and five in Northern California. We really needed help.”
that morning. The most common violation is lack of current This is no shakedown.
workers’ compensation coverage, which can
In 2004, state officials issued more than
cost an employer $1,000 per worker.
19,000 citations and fines totaling $56.3
It’s simply the state of California’s way of
million.
monitoring employee working conditions in
Employee timecard and record-keeping
industries it has identified as prone to take
violations can result in fines of $250 per
Fryer says the number of those violations
advantage of low-skilled workers. It is part
employee per week.
are only expected to climb as state agents
of an effort by the state to curb the so-called
conduct more checks.
underground economy, which puts law-
State officials say they have no interest in the
abiding businesses at a disadvantage and
bulk of the 2.9 million businesses that follow
“This is not about making money for the
adversely affects taxpayers.
the law. But they know that not everyone
state, but about taking care of employees
does and they target businesses that have
who need our help,” he says. “More manpow-
“We have identified certain industries that
had an unusual number of labor complaints
er will mean that it will be harder for these
have demonstrated in the past that some of
filed against them, or those that don’t have
employers to escape unnoticed, and workers
their members don’t treat employees fairly,”
workers’ compensation documentation on
will be better off.”
says Dean Fryer of the state’s Department of
file with the state.
Industrial Relations. “We have found that if they don’t have workThe industries targeted by the state are res-
ers’ compensation coverage, it means they
taurant, construction, garment, agriculture,
probably are cutting corners in other areas
car wash, horse racing and janitorial.
as well,” says Alonso Silva, an enforcement officer with the state.
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