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	<ns0:Description>
		<ns0:Id>20250AB__069496AMD</ns0:Id>
		<ns0:VersionNum>96</ns0:VersionNum>
		<ns0:History>
			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-02-14</ns0:ActionDate>
			</ns0:Action>
			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_ASSEMBLY</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-03-24</ns0:ActionDate>
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			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_ASSEMBLY</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-04-21</ns0:ActionDate>
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			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_SENATE</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-06-11</ns0:ActionDate>
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		<ns0:LegislativeInfo>
			<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
			<ns0:SessionNum>0</ns0:SessionNum>
			<ns0:MeasureType>AB</ns0:MeasureType>
			<ns0:MeasureNum>694</ns0:MeasureNum>
			<ns0:MeasureState>AMD</ns0:MeasureState>
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		<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Assembly Member McKinnor</ns0:AuthorText>
		<ns0:AuthorText authorType="COAUTHOR_OPPOSITE">(Coauthors: Senators Cortese and Padilla)</ns0:AuthorText>
		<ns0:Authors>
			<ns0:Legislator>
				<ns0:Contribution>LEAD_AUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
				<ns0:House>ASSEMBLY</ns0:House>
				<ns0:Name>McKinnor</ns0:Name>
			</ns0:Legislator>
			<ns0:Legislator>
				<ns0:Contribution>COAUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
				<ns0:House>SENATE</ns0:House>
				<ns0:Name>Cortese</ns0:Name>
			</ns0:Legislator>
			<ns0:Legislator>
				<ns0:Contribution>COAUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
				<ns0:House>SENATE</ns0:House>
				<ns0:Name>Padilla</ns0:Name>
			</ns0:Legislator>
		</ns0:Authors>
		<ns0:Title> An act to add Section 6330.1 to the Labor Code, relating to employment. </ns0:Title>
		<ns0:RelatingClause>employment</ns0:RelatingClause>
		<ns0:GeneralSubject>
			<ns0:Subject>Department of Industrial Relations: advisory committee: occupational safety and health.</ns0:Subject>
		</ns0:GeneralSubject>
		<ns0:DigestText>
			<html:p>Existing law establishes the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the Department of Industrial Relations, and charges the division with the enforcement of various laws affecting safe working conditions, including the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973. Existing law requires the Director of Industrial Relations to prepare and submit to the Legislature an annual report on the activities of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, as specified.</html:p>
			<html:p>Existing law establishes the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, as one of the segments of postsecondary education in the state. Existing law requires the Department of Industrial Relations to contract with the University of California, Los Angeles Labor Center, to conduct a study evaluating opportunities to
			 improve worker safety and safeguard employment rights, as specified, and to convene an advisory committee to make recommendations regarding the scope of the study, as described. </html:p>
			<html:p>This bill would require the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to contract with the University of California, Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program and the University of California, Los Angeles Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program to conduct a study to evaluate the understaffing and vacancies within the division and make recommendations to the department, the Department of Human Resources, and the Legislature on policies the state shall use to inform the consideration and establishment of career pathways to the Compliance Safety and Health Officer classification. The bill would authorize the University of California to subcontract the responsibility for conducting the study to other specified entities. The bill would require the University of California and its
			 subcontractors, if any, to issue a report that includes certain information about the understaffing and vacancies of Compliance Safety and Health Officers within the division. The bill would further require the University of California to convene an advisory committee consisting of members from specified state agencies, worker advocacy organizations, other academic institutions, and other entities, as specified, to make recommendations regarding the scope of the above-described study, and provide specified findings and recommendations to the division, as prescribed. The bill would require the advisory committee, within 60 days of entering into the contract the University of California, to hold at least one meeting, and the department, 18 months after entering into the contract with the University of California, to
			 post the completed report on the division’s internet website and to forward the completed report to the members of the advisory committee, the Governor, and specified legislative committee chairs. The bill would define terms for these purposes, and include finding and declaration relating to these provisions.</html:p>
		</ns0:DigestText>
		<ns0:DigestKey>
			<ns0:VoteRequired>MAJORITY</ns0:VoteRequired>
			<ns0:Appropriation>NO</ns0:Appropriation>
			<ns0:FiscalCommittee>YES</ns0:FiscalCommittee>
			<ns0:LocalProgram>NO</ns0:LocalProgram>
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			<ns0:ImmediateEffect>NO</ns0:ImmediateEffect>
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				<ns0:Urgency>NO</ns0:Urgency>
				<ns0:TaxLevy>NO</ns0:TaxLevy>
				<ns0:Election>NO</ns0:Election>
				<ns0:UsualCurrentExpenses>NO</ns0:UsualCurrentExpenses>
				<ns0:BudgetBill>NO</ns0:BudgetBill>
				<ns0:Prop25TrailerBill>NO</ns0:Prop25TrailerBill>
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	<ns0:Bill id="bill">
		<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
		<ns0:BillSection id="id_44DA18C2-2AB9-45AC-8742-1D6B3EAE693A">
			<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
			<ns0:Content>
				<html:p>
					(a)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(1)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The Division of Occupational Safety and Health has had an ongoing, multiyear understaffing and vacancy crisis, particularly in their enforcement division.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(2)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The Division of Occupational Safety and Health reported in November 2024 that their ratio of Compliance Safety and Health Officers to workers is 1 inspector to every 120,102 workers in the State of California. This compares to ratios of 1 to 26,000 in the state of Washington, and 1 to 24,000 in the state of Oregon.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(3)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					As of November 2024, the enforcement division for the Division of Occupational Safety and Health has a 42.5 percent vacancy rate, with eight regional enforcement offices reporting vacancy rates above 50 percent.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(4)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The ratio of inspectors to workers and the high vacancy rate in the Division of Occupational Safety and Health disproportionately impact certain industries, sectors, and geographic regions of the state.
				</html:p>
				 
				<html:p>
					(5)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					As of November 2024, only 10 Compliance Safety and Health Officers statewide are certified bilingual, while 5 million of the state’s 19 million workers speak languages other than English and one in three employed workers are immigrants.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(6)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					This gap in language access creates communication barriers that reduce the ability of workers with limited English proficiency to report health and safety violations.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(7)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Amidst this chronic vacancy issue, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health opened 12 percent fewer inspections and issued 12 percent fewer citations during the first three quarters of 2024 than during the same period in 2023. The cited violations for this period in 2024 were 50 percent lower than in 2022.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(8)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The health and safety of California workers depends on a fully staffed Division of Occupational Safety and Health. California
				must enact new and urgent strategies to address the ongoing staffing vacancies with the goal of increasing and diversifying the pool of candidates for enforcement positions that can serve California’s diverse workforce.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(b)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to develop recommendations for the design of a Division of Occupational Safety and Health Compliance Safety and Health Officer workforce development pipeline program, and any relevant policy improvements to aid in the effective implementation of that program, in order to expand and diversify the candidates who may fill these positions and therefore improve health and safety
				enforcement outcomes in the state of California. This effort is intended as part of a multipronged strategy that should complement, and in no way delay, current and ongoing efforts to address staffing issues of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
				</html:p>
			</ns0:Content>
		</ns0:BillSection>
		<ns0:BillSection id="id_4EA4430E-C831-4659-A0EA-3268FBC8BB71">
			<ns0:Num>SEC. 2.</ns0:Num>
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				Section 6330.1 is added to the 
				<ns0:DocName>Labor Code</ns0:DocName>
				, to read:
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				<ns0:LawSection id="id_E07F0A7A-FD9B-4AC1-BD20-D17B9D0223B8">
					<ns0:Num>6330.1.</ns0:Num>
					<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_15D3650A-2496-4C10-A147-279BF8CFE55B">
						<ns0:Content>
							<html:p>
								(a)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								(1)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The department shall contract with the University of California, Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program and the University of California, Los Angeles Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program, within 120 days of an appropriation by the Legislature, to conduct a study to evaluate the understaffing and vacancies within the division and make recommendations to the department, the Department of Human Resources, and the Legislature on policies the state shall use to inform the consideration and establishment of career pathways to the Compliance Safety and Health Officer classification.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(2)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The University of California may subcontract, in
						whole or in part, the responsibility for conducting the study to another academic institution.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(b)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								(1)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The entity or entities with which a contract or subcontract is entered into pursuant to subdivision (a) shall conduct the study in the manner described in this section. 
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(2)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								 The University of California and its subcontractors, if any, shall issue a report that includes, but is not limited to, all of the following:
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(A)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Literature review compiling existing research related to the division’s understaffing and vacancy problem, impacts of these
						problems at statewide, regional, or industry levels, and models for workforce development programs that could increase the career pathways for Compliance Safety and Health Officers.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(B)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								An analysis to identify primary causes of the division’s Compliance Safety and Health Officer vacancies.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(C)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Recommendations to address the division’s Compliance Safety and Health Officer understaffing and vacancies, including recommended timeline and strategies to implement a workforce training program. In making these recommendations, the study and committee shall consider all of the following: 
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(i)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								How to improve the effectiveness of hiring and retention and decrease the hiring time for the division’s Compliance Safety
						and Health Officer positions.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(ii)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								A summary of all relevant division Compliance Safety and Health Officer position responsibilities, skills, and tasks, as provided by the division or through interviews with certified safety and health officials.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(iii)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								An analysis of different workforce development and training models including third-party certification and apprenticeship. 
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(iv)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Identification of current programs, institutions, or organizations in the field that could partner in a new workforce development training program and what role they could play.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(v)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								An analysis of external workforce populations who may have matching skill sets and experience that
						would make them effective candidates for a Compliance Safety and Health Officer workforce training program, including linguistic and cultural competencies that match the diverse California workforce. This may include an analysis of the level of fit between these candidates and current minimum qualifications.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(vi)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Recommendations on Compliance Safety and Health Officer qualities and skills that would encourage worker engagement with the division based on data collected from low-wage and immigrant workers.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(vii)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Identification of core curriculum components for the eventual development of a workforce training program for
						Compliance Safety and Health Officers.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(c)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								(1)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The University of California shall convene an advisory committee to make recommendations regarding the scope of the study required pursuant to subdivision (b), and provide the findings and recommendations described in subparagraph (C) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) to the division.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(2)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The advisory committee shall meet at least once while the study is being conducted, and at least two times to review findings and recommendations. The committee shall hold at least one public meeting while the study is being conducted and one additional public meeting to gather input on recommendations and findings. The division, Department of Human Resources, and the Division of Apprenticeship Standards shall
						provide timely responses to requests for information from the committee.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(d)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The advisory committee shall be composed of at least 15, and not more than 17, members, and shall include all of the following members: 
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(1)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								One member from the division.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(2)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								One member from the Department of Human Resources.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(3)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								One member from the
						Division of Apprenticeship Standards.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(4)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								One member for each representing union of the division’s enforcement and administrative classifications, including one member for the representing union for safety engineers, one member for the representing union for industrial hygienists, and one member for the representing union for administrative staff in Bargaining Unit 1.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(5)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								One member from a statewide organization that represents labor unions in the high-risk industries of the building and construction trades, and one member for the representing union for proprietary workers from California refineries to advise on the Division of Occupational Safety and Health Process Safety Management Unit.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(6)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								One member from a
						statewide organization representing public and private sector unions whose membership includes workers subject to the occupational health and safety provisions of the Labor Code.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(7)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Three members from community-based nonprofit organizations that have at least five years of experience advocating on behalf of workers to address health and safety issues in the workplace, and represent diverse geographies. 
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(8)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								One member from the California Community Colleges with experience in workforce development training for health and safety-related careers.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(9)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								One member from an academic institution. 
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(10)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								One member who has worked for or on behalf of employers in California related to compliance with occupational health and safety provisions of the Labor Code and related regulations for more than five years, and who has more than five years of experience in either interacting with or working with division staff.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(e)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								At least two members of the membership described in subdivision (d) shall represent areas of the state with high proportions of workers who are at high risk of unhealthy or unsafe working conditions due to immigration status, language barriers, geographic isolation, and high violation industries, as determined by the University of California, including, but not limited to, the San Joaquin Valley area.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(f)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								(1)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The division, Department of Human Resources, and Division of Apprenticeship Standards shall appoint the members in paragraphs (1) to (3), inclusive, of subdivision (d) from their respective agency.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(2)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The representing labor organizations shall appoint the members in paragraph (4) of subdivision (d) from their respective organizations.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(3)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The University of California shall appoint the organizations in paragraphs (5) and (6) of subdivision (d) to the committee, and those organizations shall appoint their designated members.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(4)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The University of
						California shall appoint the members in paragraphs (7) to
						(10), inclusive, of subdivision (d) to the committee by selecting an individual who submits an application with, and developed by, the University of California. 
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(g)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								(1)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Within 60 days of entering into the contract with the University of California pursuant to subdivision (a), the advisory committee shall hold at least one meeting.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(2)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Eighteen months after entering into the contract with the University of California pursuant to
						subdivision (a), the report shall be completed and the department shall post the completed report described in subdivision (b) on the division’s internet website and forward the completed report to the members of the advisory committee, the Governor, and the Chairs of the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment and the Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment and Retirement. 
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(3)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The report shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code. 
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(h)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								In conducting the study required pursuant to subdivision (b), the University of California and any subcontractors shall consider and be guided by the recommendations of the advisory committee, if any, only so long as the recommendations would not substantially increase the cost of the study or cause the report to be issued after the required submission date pursuant to subdivision (b).
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(i)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Implementation of this section shall be subject to an appropriation made by the Legislature for the express purpose of this section.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(j)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								For purposes of this section, the following terms apply:
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(1)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								“Academic institution” means a public college or university accredited by a commission recognized by the United States Department of Education. 
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(2)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								“Compliance Safety and Health Officers” means personnel in the safety engineer and industrial hygienist classifications of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. 
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(3)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								“Department” means the Department of Industrial Relations.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(4)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								“Division” means the Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(5)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								“The University of California” means the University of California, Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program and the University of California, Los Angeles Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program.
							</html:p>
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