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Californians say they were fired for leaving their jobs in sweltering heat. Is the state on their side?

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Californians say they were fired for leaving their jobs in sweltering heat. Is the state on their side?

BY JEANNE KUANG | CalMatters

They worked nearly three triple-digit days before it felt unsafe to go on.

Maria Paredes said she already had a headache while working in a tomato field near Dixon on June 5, when high temperatures hit between 99 to 107 degrees. The hotter the next day got, the 40-year-old farmworker said, “the more it started to go back to my head, and I started to feel like vomiting.”

Seeing other workers feeling ill, Paredes and five coworkers said they got their forewoman’s permission to go home early on June 6, during one of the first heat waves this year.

But when they showed up again at dawn the next day, they were given their last checks — and told there was no more work for them.

Two state agencies are investigating the incident as a retaliatory firing. Conrad Ruiz, owner of the contractor that employed the workers, denied that’s what happened but declined to explain further.

As California confronts the dangers of extreme heat, labor advocates say some workers are underprotected despite the state’s nearly two-decade-old outdoor workplace heat rules. Enforcement is slow, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health is understaffed and hesitance to report poor conditions is widespread among low-wage workers. After a sharp decrease in inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cal/OSHA reports show the agency hasn’t returned to its pre-pandemic heat enforcement levels.

Following up on the workers’ complaint, the agency is investigating whether Ruiz had followed the heat rules, which require water, shade, breaks, training for workers and a plan to prevent heat illness.

Those who were let go say they’re worried the incident will discourage their former coworkers from taking breaks or raising concerns. As they await the results of the state’s investigations, they have embarked on a series of media interviews to warn other farmworkers of the risks of heat illness.

“If you die in the fields, what will happen to your kids?” asks Paredes, who made $16 an hour in the tomato field.

Farmworker Maria Paredes, 40, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. She lost her job at a tomato field the day after she decided to go home early after feeling sick due to the heat. Photo by Laure Andrillon for CalMatters

A 2022 UC Merced study found that 20% of surveyed farmworkers said their employers never monitored the temperature on hot days, as required by the state rules, and 15% said they were never provided shade. More than a quarter of workers said they were unaware of their right to file safety complaints, and nearly two-thirds said they would not report a violation out of fear of retaliation or concern they’d lose their jobs.

The United Farm Workers union this year is pushing a bill that they say will prompt employers to make farm work safer.

Senate Bill 1299 — authored by Silicon Valley Democratic Sen. Dave Cortese, a former farmworker, and co-authored by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat and son of farmworkers — would make it easier for workers to make a workers’ compensation claim for heat illness. It would specifically apply when employers can’t prove they were taking all the required precautions under the heat rule.

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