Cal-OSHA Recommends Charges against Company, while Critics Say Agency Undermanned

Safety at Work

San Leandro, CA (WorkersCompensation.com) – Cal-OSHA has recommended criminal charges against a metal recycling company where a third had died.

Even though it is continuing to investigate and levy recommendations against the company, some critics of the state agency are saying the workplace safety monitor is understaffed and not doing its due diligence.

State officials said the death of a worker at Alco Iron & Metal in January was the third employee death at the metal recycling facility. The legal unit of Cal-OSHA referred the case to the Alameda County District Attorney for prosecution.

Luis Guerrero, 41, of Castro Valley, was working at the company on Jan. 8, trying to fix a broken forklift. According to video of the incident, Guerrero walked to the back of the broken forklift, when the machine fell to the ground, trapping him underneath. Guerrero was seen in the video on his back as other employees tried to rescue him. He was the third employee to die at the plant since 2017.

Officials said the district attorney can choose to prosecute employers for violations of the Labor Code for “knowingly, negligently or willfully violating an occupational safety or health standard.” Criminal sanction can include fines or prison time.

In a statement to KTVU at the time of the incident, Alco said they have "always been a safe and family-oriented place to work."

"Alco truly is a family, and all of us watch out and care for each other," the company said in the statement. "Alco prides itself on a robust safety training program and a culture where all management and employees buy into its importance."

The company also said, "each of our employees is required to go through a rigorous training orientation when they are hired, and that training is refreshed on a regular basis during their employment."

In June, Cal-OSHA fined Alco $95,000 after investigating Guerrero’s death. The company has already appealed the fine.

At the same time, critics of the agency are claiming that nearly a third of the agency’s positions were vacant last year, and that a new state audit has found that those open positions have caused the agency to skip in-person inspections, even when workers were injured.

A review of Cal-OSHA published last week found understaffing was a primary factor leading to in-person inspections even in cases where auditors found an in-person inspection was warranted. Nearly a third of the division’s 800-plus positions were vacant last year.

“When it does perform inspections, Cal/OSHA’s process has critical weaknesses,” state auditor Grant Parks wrote.

The weaknesses include inspectors failing to review employer’s required injury prevention plans, failing to document notes from interviews with workers, and failing to initiate inspections quickly and ensure employers had addressed hazards before closing a case files.

Law in California allows inspectors to proactively inspect workplaces, or to inspect workplaces after accidents or in response to a complaint. But it only requires inspections for workplace deaths or “serious” accidents. Enforcement staff have to first determine whether complaints are valid. Many often chose to inspect by letter instead, which requires writing to employers asking them to investigate complaints and document how they’ve addressed the complaint’s hazards.

The audit found that in 2024, out of more than 12,000 complaints, the agency found 87 percent valid, and staff inspected just 17 percent of those workplaces in person. Out of 5,800 workplace accidents, the agency only deemed 24 percent serious enough to investigate in person.

In one case, a union representative filed a complaint saying that construction workers were riding on heavy machinery on the road with no seat belts, and another worker hanging off of the side of the vehicle. Cal-OSHA declined to investigate because the vehicle was on a public road and outside of the agency’s jurisdiction. But the audit found that the agency should have opened the complaint because the workers were riding on a company vehicle.

In another complaint from a kitchen worker who was taken to an emergency room possibly from heat illness, the worker alleged the restaurant had poor ventilation, broken air conditioning and temperatures reaching 90 degrees indoors. Despite agency policies requiring on-site inspections for serious hazards involving current employees, and for any heat-related complaints, the agency sent the employer a letter. Auditors determined that the employer never responded to the letter.

The letter also highlighted two injuries Cal-OSHA said weren’t serious enough to inspect in person. One of those injuries was an incident where a worker was cut by a chainsaw, and the other was an incident where the worker was knocked unconscious when they were hit in the head and suffered a skull fracture.

The audit said the agency’s lack of in-person inspections makes some of the strictest worker protections in the country mute by lack of enforcement.

Stephen Knight, director of the advocacy group Worksafe, called the audit’s findings “really disappointing.”

“It confirms that California’s promise to hold employers accountable remains unfulfilled,” Knight told CalMatters. “There’s a lot of good solid detail and suggestions in the audit, nothing they couldn’t have figured out beforehand. Certainly, what it would require is resources and political leadership that sides with workers over corner-cutting employers.”

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