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Health & Safety Committees Make a Difference
in Social Services Agency
by Randy Lyman 

When the Self-Sufficiency Center opened in Eastmont Mall in late 1999, employees got all choked up. Literally. "Every single day people would be complaining about eye irritation. There'd be a lot of sneezing and coughing and watery eyes, and people's throats would be scratchy," says Nakisha Pettway, who was there at the beginning as a Clerk II. "We were not allowed to turn the air conditioning up or down. It was controlled by the owner of the building."

Today, Social Service employees are breathing easier. The building owners have been "very cooperative" in addressing problems with air quality and temperature, according to Eastmont site's health and safety coordinator Mary Sanders.

For years, however, solving health and safety problems at Social Services Agency worksites required state intervention. Since 1990 Social Services has far surpassed other county agencies in violations of state health and safety regulations. In a total of 153 inspections conducted in Alameda County agencies between 1990 and 2002, nearly one-quarter (36) were the result of complaints filed against the agency with Cal/OSHA, the state's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That's more than the comparable departments in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Contra Costa counties combined. In 1992 alone, Social Services received 11 complaint-related inspections, followed by a brief drop and then a rise to six inspections in 1994 and five in 1995.

But the next year it received none, and since 1997 the agency has been subject to only one complaint-related inspection a year. County officials and line staff credit that improvement to a heightened awareness of health and safety throughout the SSA, where committees at the agency level and in every worksite attempt to manage workplace hazards so the regulators don't need to intervene. The Social Services H & S committee conducts its own annual inspections, and recently passed Eastmont and other worksites with flying colors.

Lingering Problems

One violation from the 2000 inspection was never corrected. The Eastmont site still lacks a rooftop antenna enabling the deputies stationed in the lobby to radio for outside help in a violent encounter. Cal/OSHA also cited Social Services for not fully implementing the workplace violence component of its Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP).

The county responded with what seems to be a typical two-track approach - Social Services worked to correct the violations while the county Risk Management Department chose to appeal the citations. The county paid an outside attorney $260 an hour to challenge the citations, which resulted in the fine being reduced from $2,170 to $560.

Sandra Jacquez, an Eligibility Tech and co-chair of the Self-Sufficiency Center's health and safety committee, said the worksite has pushed the county for an antenna, but to no avail. County Risk Analyst Ulis Redic, who is responsible for health and safety at county worksites, said he'd discussed the antenna with the sheriff and Social Services some time ago, but didn't realize it was still an issue, since Cal/OSHA withdrew its citation on the item after the county appealed.

Capt. Gary Schellenberg of the Sheriff's Department said the deputies "know from experience where the dead spots are, but still, it's unnerving for them." He said several antenna systems have been tested, but it's a challenge to find one that's both capable and affordable.

Focus on Injury Prevention

Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations places responsibility for workplace health and safety squarely on employers, requiring them to "establish, implement and maintain an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program" (IIPP). While the regulation does not require employers to establish health and safety committees, if there is a committee, it must include both labor and management representatives.

The SSA has one of the most active health and safety committees among county agencies. Worksite committees hold meetings at least quarterly, keep employees informed of concerns or problems as they occur, and encourage them to attend classes on workplace health and safety. Members of the Eastmont committee come from all the units at the site, representing more than 150 employees. They also participate in the department-wide safety committee, headed by coordinator Denise Robinson, who conducts annual inspections of every agency worksite. The committee has addressed ergonomic and workplace violence issues, but since Sept. 11, 2001, its focus has shifted toward emergency preparedness and evacuation drills.

Eastmont safety activist Neka Jones

Neka Jones, a Eligibility Support Clerk and member of the health and safety committee, said she got an inspection in two weeks, and new equipment shortly thereafter. "Anything they could fix on the spot, they did," she said.

Redic says the agency made health and safety more of a priority, which lead to a decrease in Cal/OSHA citations. "Several years ago Social Services made a concerted effort to put more emphasis on employee safety. They designated a safety and health coordinator, who spent more time on it than his predecessor. Now there's someone on it full-time."

While Social Services has worked to turn around its safety record, county Risk Management seems more intent on challenging Cal/OSHA on the technicalities of safety violations. The county spent over $9,000 on an outside attorney to appeal fines of $2,400. This is money that was not spent on the county's health and safety program-tracking and correcting problems, employee training, and worksite inspections.

Alameda County would do better working with Cal/OSHA, rather than fighting it. "We want employers to have a culture of safety in their workplace," says Cal/OSHA spokesperson Susan Gard, "not just look at the requirements as something they have to comply with."

(This article was first published in October 2002.)