Assembly BillIntroducedLabor
AB 2488: Department of Industrial Relations: occupational safety and health.
What AB 2488 does, verified May 16, 2026
The bill aims to improve worker safety and safeguard employment rights in California. The California Department of Industrial Relations will contract with the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA to conduct a study on understaffing and vacancies within the division. The study will evaluate the division's staffing and make recommendations for policies to address career pathways to the Compliance Safety and Health Officer classification. The report will include information on understaffing and vacancies, be completed within 18 months, and be made publicly available on the division's website. The bill also requires the department to cooperate with the university and subcontractors, and to hold public meetings to gather stakeholder feedback.
Bill journey
1IntroducedCurrent
2In CommitteePending
3First Chamber FloorPending
4Second ChamberPending
5GovernorPending
6ChapteredPending
Last action: In committee: Held under submission. (2026-05-14)Alert me
Author and sponsors
Full contact details, staff, and committees with Connect, $16/moUnlockRecent actions6 total · showing 5
| May. 14, 2026 | In committee: Held under submission. |
| Apr. 22, 2026 | In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. |
| Apr. 09, 2026 | From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (April 8). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. |
| Mar. 09, 2026 | Referred to Com. on L. & E. |
| Feb. 21, 2026 | From printer. May be heard in committee March 23. |
Latest bill textIntroduced version, February 20, 2026 · 1,616 words
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 2488
| Introduced by Assembly Member Schiavo |
February 20, 2026 |
An act to add Section 6330.1 to the Labor Code, relating to employment.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2488, as introduced, Schiavo. Department of Industrial Relations: occupational safety and health.
Existing law establishes the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the Department of Industrial Relations, and charges the division with the enforcement of various laws affecting safe working conditions, including the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973. Existing law requires the Director of Industrial Relations to prepare and submit to the Legislature an annual report on the activities of the division, as specified.
Existing law establishes the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, as one of the segments of postsecondary education in the state. Existing law requires the department to contract with the University of California, Los Angeles Labor Center, to conduct a study evaluating opportunities to improve worker safety and safeguard employment rights, as specified.
This bill would require the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to contract with the University of California, Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program and the University of California, Los Angeles Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program to conduct a study to evaluate the understaffing and vacancies within the division and make recommendations to the department, the Department of Human Resources, and the Legislature on policies the state shall use to inform the consideration and establishment of career pathways to the Compliance Safety and Health Officer classification. The bill would authorize the University of California, as defined, to subcontract the responsibility for conducting the study to other specified entities. The bill would require the department to cooperate and collaborate with the University of California and its subcontractors, if any, in the conduct of the study. The bill would require the University of California and its subcontractors, if any, as part of the study, to hold at least one well-publicized and conveniently located meeting to provide an opportunity for comment by stakeholders and the public on the issues addressed in the study. The bill would require the University of California and its subcontractors, if any, to issue a report that includes certain information about the understaffing and vacancies of Compliance Safety and Health Officers within the division. The bill would require the report to be completed in 18 months, posted on the division’s internet website, and forwarded to the Governor and the chairs of specified legislative committees. The bill would define terms for these purposes.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) The Division of Occupational Safety and Health has had an ongoing, multiyear understaffing and vacancy crisis, particularly in their enforcement division.
(2) The Division of Occupational Safety and Health reported in November 2024 that their ratio of Compliance Safety and Health Officers to workers is 1 inspector to every 120,102 workers in the State of California. This compares to ratios of 1 to 26,000 in the state of Washington, and 1 to 24,000 in the state of Oregon.
(3) As of November 2024, the enforcement division for the Division of Occupational Safety and Health has a 42.5 percent vacancy rate, with eight regional enforcement offices reporting vacancy rates above 50 percent.
(4) The ratio of inspectors to workers and the high vacancy rate in the Division of Occupational Safety and Health disproportionately impact certain industries, sectors, and geographic regions of the state.
(5) As of November 2024, only 10 Compliance Safety and Health Officers statewide are certified bilingual, while 5 million of the state’s 19 million workers speak languages other than English and one in three employed workers are immigrants.
(6) This gap in language access creates communication barriers that reduce the ability of workers with limited English proficiency to report health and safety violations.
(7) Amidst this chronic vacancy issue, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health opened 12 percent fewer inspections and issued 12 percent fewer citations during the first three quarters of 2024 than during the same period in 2023. The cited violations for this period in 2024 were 50 percent lower than in 2022.
(8) The health and safety of California workers depends on a fully staffed Division of Occupational Safety and Health. California must enact new and urgent strategies to address the ongoing staffing vacancies with the goal of increasing and diversifying the pool of candidates for enforcement positions that can serve California’s diverse workforce.
(b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to develop recommendations for the design of a Division of Occupational Safety and Health Compliance Safety and Health Officer workforce development pipeline program, and any relevant policy improvements to aid in the effective implementation of that program, in order to expand and diversify the candidates who may fill these positions and therefore improve health and safety enforcement outcomes in the state of California. This effort is intended as part of a multipronged strategy that should complement, and in no way delay, current and ongoing efforts to address staffing issues of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
SEC. 2.
Section 6330.1 is added to the Labor Code, to read:6330.1.
(a) (1) The department shall contract with the University of California, Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program and the University of California, Los Angeles Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program, within 120 days of an appropriation by the Legislature, to conduct a study to evaluate the understaffing and vacancies within the division and make recommendations to the department, the Department of Human Resources, and the Legislature on policies the state shall use to inform the consideration and establishment of career pathways to the Compliance Safety and Health Officer classification.(2) The University of California may subcontract, in whole or in part, the responsibility for conducting the study to another academic institution.
(b) (1) The entity or entities with which a contract or subcontract is entered into pursuant to subdivision (a) shall conduct the study in the manner described in this section.
(2) The University of California and its subcontractors, if any, shall issue a report that includes, but is not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Literature review compiling existing research related to the division’s understaffing and vacancy problem, impacts of these problems at statewide, regional, or industry levels, and models for workforce development programs that could increase the career pathways for Compliance Safety and Health Officers.
(B) An analysis to identify primary causes of the division’s Compliance Safety and Health Officer vacancies.
(C) Recommendations to address the division’s Compliance Safety and Health Officer understaffing and vacancies, including recommended timeline and strategies to implement a workforce training program. In making these recommendations, the study shall consider all of the following:
(i) How to improve the effectiveness of hiring and retention and decrease the hiring time for the division’s Compliance Safety and Health Officer positions.
(ii) A summary of all relevant division Compliance Safety and Health Officer position responsibilities, skills, and tasks, as provided by the division or through interviews with certified safety and health officials.
(iii) An analysis of different workforce development and training models including third-party certification and apprenticeship.
(iv) Identification of current programs, institutions, or organizations in the field that could partner in a new workforce development training program and what role they could play.
(v) An analysis of external workforce populations who may have matching skill sets and experience that would make them effective candidates for a Compliance Safety and Health Officer workforce training program, including linguistic and cultural competencies that match the diverse California workforce. This may include an analysis of the level of fit between these candidates and current minimum qualifications.
(vi) Recommendations on Compliance Safety and Health Officer qualities and skills that would encourage worker engagement with the division based on data collected from low-wage and immigrant workers.
(vii) Identification of core curriculum components for the eventual development of a workforce training program for Compliance Safety and Health Officers.
(3) The department shall cooperate and collaborate with the University of California and its subcontractors, if any, in the conduct of the study.
(4) As part of the study, the University of California and its subcontractors, if any, shall hold at least one well-publicized and conveniently located meeting to provide an opportunity for comment by stakeholders and the public on the issues addressed in the study.
(5) Eighteen months after entering into the contract with the University of California pursuant to subdivision (a), the report shall be completed and the department shall post the completed report on the division’s internet website and forward the completed report to the Governor and the Chairs of the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment and the Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment and Retirement.
(6) The report shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(c) Implementation of this section shall be subject to an appropriation made by the Legislature for the express purpose of this section.
(d) As used in this section:
(1) “Academic institution” means a public college or university accredited by a commission recognized by the United States Department of Education.
(2) “Compliance Safety and Health Officers” means personnel in the safety engineer and industrial hygienist classifications of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
(3) “Department” means the Department of Industrial Relations.
(4) “Division” means the Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
(5) “The University of California” means the University of California, Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program and the University of California, Los Angeles Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program.
Text of AB 2488 as introduced, from the official record. Connect Plus keeps every version and highlights what changed.Compare versions