In an informational outreach effort, the California Labor Commissioner’s Office and the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, also known as Cal/OSHA, is hosting a four-day mobile caravan to agricultural fields from Ventura to Santa Barbara counties to inform farmworkers about their labor rights.
The caravan began on May 10 with a Department of Industrial Relations press conference at Plaza Park in Oxnard where English was translated into Spanish and Mixteco by Jorge Toledano—a community organizer for Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP).
“We’re here to bring a message to farmworkers, that every farmworker has the right to regular paid sick days, to supplemental paid sick days, to be paid all their hours that they work without fear of retaliation,” said California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower.
For the 2021 year, García-Brower said workers are entitled to paid sick leave or supplemental paid sick leave if their company has at least 26 employees. Workers can use this for COVID-19-related reasons, including being under isolation or quarantine orders, a child’s school closing due to confirmed a COVID-19 case, to get the COVID-19 vaccine, or to get tested for the virus.
“We want to make sure that this community understands that their lives matter. Supplemental paid sick leave helps save lives. It helps curbs the spread of COVID,” she said.
García-Brower said anyone with questions can call her office at (833) 526-4636.
As part of the caravan, Cal/OSHA consultants will also talk to workers about heat illness as the region expriences an uptick in temperatures, as well as COVID-19 protection.
Christina, a worker and community organizer, gave her testimonial in Spanish of what she described as working conditions in unbearable heat.
“It’s unbearable to put up with the heat, and sometimes the supervisors don’t give you a chance to drink water. I lived that and I share the experience with you,” Christina said. “I want you to know that we have the right to a safe work environment to work in, to feel safe for ourselves, our families, and our fellow workers. We also have the right to deny working for an unsafe work environment.”
The caravan will include representatives from Cal/OSHA, California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, California Labor Commissioner’s Office, MICOP, Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), and the California Rural Legal Assistance. Pre-recorded messages will play in English, Spanish, Mixteco, and Purépecha.
In an ongoing study of the effects of coronavirus on farmworkers, the California Insitute for Rural Studies’ initially found that workers lacked sufficient resources and financial assistance as they endured the challenges brought about by the global pandemic.
