CalChamber Testifies Against Costly Appeals Process for Employers

CalChamber opposed AB 1988 (Swanson; D-Oakland), which presumes employers cited for workplace safety violations are guilty until proven otherwise, passed out of the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee on a party-line vote of 6-2 on Thursday April 17.
     The bill proposes a potentially costly double appeal process that presumes guilt for employers and undermines due process with regards to citations for workplace safety violations.
     Under AB 1988 employers must pay a filing fee in order to initiate the appeal process once a citation has been given. Often the penalty for a general citation is less then the filing fee for an appeal.
     “This bill does leave untouched some of the real underlying problems with the appeals board process right now, and that’s that they’re severely understaffed, they have an enormous backlog of cases and a lot of that, we believe, is due to the enormous penalties that are levied on employers for citations,” CalChamber Policy Advocate, Marti Fisher testified. (04/17/08)