Workplace Safety and Health

All workers have a right to a safe and humane working environment.
A lack of adequate enforcement of California's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) laws and/or insufficient standards put many workers at risk. Anticipation/identification, evaluation, control, and prevention of all workplace hazards is necessary.

The Green Party proposes to:

• Protect and enforce California's OSHA laws. We insist on adequate testing of equipment and workplaces. We should adequately fund and implement enforcement procedures.

• Inform workers of workplace hazards and train them to prevent accidents and adverse exposures. . Employers have a responsibility to protect workers from those hazards through the appropriate engineering, administrative and personal protective equipment controls. Anticipation /identification, evaluation, control, and prevention of all workplace hazards is necessary.

• Legislate full funding for worker safety programs passed at the local, state and federal levels.

• Insist on agricultural practices that don't endanger farm workers. Put agricultural practices under the jurisdiction of OSHA.

• Provide a computerized data base of all chemicals and their amounts used in workplaces and in working environments including in vehicles as well as accurate and up to date material safety sheets.

• Establish similar computerized data bases for physical, biological, ergonomic, mechanical, and psychosocial (mental stress) hazards.

• Establish control charts that depict the number of adverse safety and health incidents and also CALOSHA reportable incidents through time and review them at least annually to assess if improvements should be made.

• Use the global harmonized system of labels, placards, and signs to warn of hazards, and the United Nations classification of hazardous materials.

• Increase worker’s compensation for serious injuries and consequences that cause absenteeism.

• Provide consulting services for workers who display work mental (psychosocial) stress.

• Diversify the workforce as much as possible.

• Provide real living wages for workers.

• Harness the expertise of the state’s occupational and environmental health professionals (for example, academics, safety engineers, government scientists, certified industrial hygienists, certified safety professionals, professional ergonomists, etc) to solve the state’s occupational safety and health problems.

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This revision was approved on November 12, 2017 at the Ventura General Assembly.