SECTIONS 175-176 - California Statutes

LABOR CODE

SECTION 175-176

175. The Division of Occupational Safety and Health shall be the
lead agency in providing for public health and safety as well as
worker health and safety in the construction, maintenance, and
operation of any liquefied petroleum gas storage facility, other than
a facility owned or maintained by a public utility, having a
capacity of 100,000 barrels or more, including storage vessels, and
related piping, pumping, distribution, and transfer apparatus. As the
lead agency, the division shall request any state or local agency
having statutory public health and safety jurisdiction over any part
of the construction, maintenance, or operation of any such liquefied
petroleum gas storage facility, other than a facility owned or
maintained by a public utility, to exercise its statutory
jurisdiction in relation to such facility, and shall report to the
Legislature any instance in which such jurisdiction was not
exercised.

176. (a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the
Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act, Chapter 17.5 (commencing
with Section 7290) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code,
was enacted in 1973 to provide for the removal of language barriers
that prevent the people of this state who are not proficient in
English from effectively accessing government services and otherwise
communicating with their government.
The Legislature further finds and declares that
limited-English-proficient individuals will benefit from increased
language-based access to the programs and services of the Division of
Occupational Safety and Health.
The Legislature further finds and declares that federal statistics
show that from 1996 to 2000, while overall worker fatalities dropped
14 percent, immigrant worker fatalities rose 17 percent. Immigrant
workers die on the job at higher rates because they frequently work
in more dangerous industries with little or no training. Language
barriers compound the problem because training and warning signs are
often only in English.
(b) As used in this section, a "public contact position" means any
position responsible for responding to telephone or in-office
inquiries or taking complaints from the general public regarding
matters pertaining to occupational safety and health.
(c) As used in the section, an "investigative position" means any
position responsible for investigating complaints, injuries, or
deaths related to occupational safety and health.
(d) As used in this section, "limited-English-proficient" refers
to persons who speak English less than "very well," in accordance
with United States Census data.
(e) The division shall make all efforts to ensure that
limited-English-proficient persons can communicate effectively with
the division. Examples of potential measures include, but are not
limited to, the hiring of bilingual persons in public contact
positions and investigative positions, the use of contract based
interpreters, and the use of telephone-based interpretation services.
Nothing contained in this section relieves the division of its
separate obligations under the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services
Act, Chapter 17.5 (commencing with Section 7290) of Division 7 of
Title 1 of the Government Code, or any other state or federal laws
requiring the provision of its services in languages other than
English.
(f) On July 30, 2004, the Division of Occupational Safety and
Health shall issue a progress report to the Legislature on the
implementation of this section that shall, at a minimum, include all
of the following:
(1) The most recent information provided to the California State
Personnel Board pursuant to Section 7299.4 of the Government Code.
(2) The number of bilingual employees in public contact and
investigative positions in each local office of the division and the
languages they speak, other than English.
(3) A description of any centralized system or other resources for
providing translation and interpretation services within the
division.
(4) A description of any quality control measures or evaluations
undertaken by the division to evaluate whether
limited-English-proficient persons are able to communicate
effectively with the division.
(5) A description of any means, such as contracted interpreters,
telephone-based interpretation services, or video conferencing, used
by the division to communicate with individuals who are
limited-English-proficient in the event that bilingual employees in
public contact or investigative positions are not available, and the
frequency in which these services were used by the division during
the most recent fiscal year.