California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have made it easier for farmworkers to file workers' compensation claims for heat illness. The United Farm Workers, who backed the proposal, argued that it was needed to supplement weakened enforcement of state workplace heat safety rules.
Farmworkers work on a field outside of Mendota in Fresno County on July 12, 2023. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight LocalGov. Newsom blocks legislation to make it easier for California farmworkers to file workers’ comp claims for heat illness. It was backed by their union and opposed by business groups.Gov. Gavin Newsom announced today he has vetoed a bill to bolster farmworkers’ heat illness claims as they face the increasing dangers of extreme heat.
The unique proposal would have made it easier for farmworkers to get workers’ compensation when claiming they suffered heat illness on the job.was pitched by the United Farm Workers, which said it was needed to supplement weakened enforcement of the state’s workplace heat safety rules.
But the understaffed Cal/OSHA has in recent years conducted 1,000 fewer heat inspections of worksites a year, and issued hundreds fewer violations, compared to pre-pandemic,The United Farm Workers said SB 1299 would have forced employers to comply with the heat rules, by more strictly tying them to liability for workers’ compensation claims. The bill would have required workers’ comp judges to presume farmworkers who claim heat illness developed it at work.
“There is no doubt that climate change is causing an increase in extreme temperatures and that California farmworkers need strong protections from the risk of heat-related illness,” Newsom wrote. “However, the creation of a heat-illness presumption in the workers’ compensation system is not an effective way to accomplish this goal.”
Such presumptions are used for other workers; firefighters, for example, have an easier time making workers’ comp claims for cancer because judges can assume they developed it from exposures to hazards on the job. In the case of farmworkers, the bill would have made the presumption apply only if employers can’t prove they were following the heat rules., arguing that it would unfairly mix the workers’ comp system with Cal/OSHA, which enforces safety rules.
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