California Labor Code

§ 176

LAB § 176 Effective Jan 1, 2004Div. 1 · Ch. 7.5

Statute text

(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.

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Legislative history

Amended by Stats. 2003, Ch. 62, Sec. 203. Effective January 1, 2004.