Governor Newsom Should Halt Cal/OSHA Cuts Amid Rising Heat Threats
Dear Governor Newsom:
Public Citizen, a national nonprofit consumer and worker advocacy organization with more than one million members and supporters, urges your administration to immediately avoid making the proposed cuts to Cal/OSHA enforcement funding. We also call on you to ensure that the accumulated surplus in the Occupational Safety and Health Fund (OSH Fund) is fully used to protect California workers, with a focus on addressing the growing and deadly threat of occupational heat illness.
For FY 2026-27, your administration has proposed a $725,000 reduction to Cal/OSHA Enforcement, in addition to the $16 million already cut from the current year’s budget. This reduction is not a fiscal necessity. Cal/OSHA is predominantly financed through the Occupational Safety and Health Fund, which is supported by a small employer surcharge on workers’ compensation premiums and receives no state tax revenues. The OSHA Fund reported a $200 million surplus last fiscal year and is projected to have a $130 million surplus this year. However, as of December 2025, your administration directed that 50% of OSHA Fund revenues, or approximately $100 million, be held in reserve and withheld from Cal/OSHA. As a result, employer-financed safety funds remain unused while worker protections are reduced.
Cal/OSHA’s declining enforcement capacity has had significant consequences for worker safety. As of January 31, 2026, 95 inspector positions remain unfilled, representing a 35% vacancy rate. Nine district offices are at or above 50% vacancy. Four offices lack a district manager, and three offices have no clerical staff. The July 2025 California State Auditor Report No. 2024-115 documented a 32% inspector vacancy rate in FY 2023–24 and found that only 17% of validated worker complaints resulted in an on-site inspection. On-site inspections followed employer-reported serious injuries and fatalities only 42% of the time. More recent data from the first three quarters of 2025 shows that conditions have worsened. Currently, 58% of all Cal/OSHA enforcement activity consists of letter investigations, which require employers to self-report hazards, rather than on-site visits. Cal/OSHA now responds to worker complaints with on-site inspections less than 45% of the time. California has only one field inspector for every 99,000 workers, while Oregon has one per 23,000 and Washington has one per 28,000.
The decline in enforcement presents a significant threat to workers exposed to heat. California enacted the nation’s first outdoor heat standard in 2005 and later expanded these protections to indoor workers. Peer-reviewed research published in Health Affairs in December 2025 demonstrated that stronger enforcement of California’s heat standard from 2010–2014 resulted in a 33% reduction in heat-related outdoor worker deaths, with a 51% reduction following the 2015 revision of the standard. The evidence demonstrates that enforcement, rather than standards existing solely on paper, is essential to safeguarding workers’ lives. Cal/OSHA’s heat illness prevention regulations apply to agriculture, construction, landscaping, oil and gas extraction, warehousing, and indoor workplaces where temperatures can become hazardous without effective controls. However, enforcement of these protections is now compromised. Of the 193 filled compliance officer positions statewide, only two industrial hygienists are available to conduct inspections for heat, silica, wildfire smoke, lead, noise, and other occupational health hazards.
Despite California’s improved fiscal outlook and nearly $30 billion in combined reserves, your administration’s May Revision, released May 14, 2026, maintained the proposed Cal/OSHA enforcement cuts. With the Legislature’s June 15 budget deadline now passed, Public Citizen continues to monitor the enacted budget for any restoration of Cal/OSHA funding. We urge your administration to provide a full public explanation of the legal authority and conditions under which the OSH Fund reserve was imposed. Workers and the public must receive transparency regarding the withholding of employer-financed safety revenues from the agency responsible for their use.
Public Citizen calls upon your administration to take the following actions without delay:
- Restore the full $725,000 proposed for Cal/OSHA Enforcement in the FY 2026-27 budget and commit to halting further reductions to this critically understaffed agency, as documented by the State Auditor and independent experts;
- Direct that the full OSH Fund surplus, including the approximately $100 million currently held in reserve, be made available to Cal/OSHA Enforcement and Process Safety Management to fulfill their statutory mandate to protect California’s workers;
- Provide a comprehensive public accounting of all directives that have placed OSH Fund revenues in reserve, including the legal authority, duration, and specific conditions for their release;
- Authorize immediate personnel actions, including market-rate compensation adjustments, to fill the more than 95 vacant inspector positions, with urgent priority for the nine district offices currently operating at or above 50 percent vacancy;
- Redeploy qualified industrial hygienists and prioritize enforcement of heat illness prevention in high-risk industries and regions, consistent with Cal/OSHA’s heat illness prevention standards; and
- Restore the proposed $350,000 cut to Cal/OSHA’s Process Safety Management unit, which is responsible for oversight of California’s 13 oil refineries and more than 1,000 workplaces handling highly hazardous chemicals.
California’s agricultural, construction, warehouse, and disaster recovery workers require immediate and decisive action to ensure their safety. An agency overwhelmingly supported by employer contributions and established to protect workers cannot justify a $200 million surplus while inspector positions sit vacant and heat-related fatalities continue. Public Citizen respectfully urges your administration to act without delay and requests that the California Legislature investigate why OSH Fund revenues are not being directed to benefit the workers whose employers have contributed these resources.
We appreciate your attention to this urgent matter and welcome the opportunity to discuss these concerns further.
Sincerely,
A’Ishah Johnson, MPH
Workers’ Health and Safety Advocate
Public Citizen