Tim Hearden
California Farm Bureau Federation, Western Growers, Grower-Shipper Association are among the plaintiffs.
Dec 31, 2020
A coalition of agricultural and business employers has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court challenging the COVID-19 related emergency temporary standards recently approved by the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board.
The complaint alleges, among other things, that the Board lacks statutory authority to impose many of the sweeping measures of the ETS on California employers.
For California’s multi-generational farmers, the health and safety of their employees and the consumers they serve is their top priority.
“In the weeks and months following Governor Newsom’s emergency declaration in March, California farmers and processors moved quickly to implement dramatic new safety practices aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace,” said Dave Puglia, President & CEO of Western Growers. “While these measures helped reduce transmission in workplaces, this virus has swept through communities large and small in spite of lockdown orders and mask mandates, and through every sector of the economy as well despite extraordinary efforts by employers and employees alike. The Board imposed unrealistic, unfounded and economically harmful standards in total disregard of these realities. We have no choice but to seek judicial relief.”