California adopts standards to protect nighttime ag workers

Sacramento, CA — California has enacted two standards designed to help protect nighttime agriculture workers from on-the-job hazards.

Approved June 3 by the state’s Office of Administrative Law, the standards require employers to ensure all tractors, self-propelled farm equipment and trucks used between sunset and sunrise are equipped with at least one headlight capable of illuminating a minimum of 50 feet in front of the equipment or truck. Additionally, trucks and equipment must have a least one rear light.

Further, employers are required to:

• Ensure workers have adequate lighting based on operation, area or assigned task.
• Ensure supervisors conduct pre-shift safety meetings to “inform employees of the location of the restrooms, drinking water, designated break areas, nearby bodies of water and high traffic areas.”
• Provide employees with and maintain hands-free portable lighting and/or area lighting.
• Provide and require workers to wear personal protective equipment that meets the ANSI/ISEA 107-2015 standard for high-visibility clothing.

“Agricultural workers face additional hazards at night, when visibility is limited,” Doug Parker, chief of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, also known as Cal/OSHA, said in a June 24 press release. “These commonsense standards will enable workers to see hazards and also make them visible to operators of tractors and other equipment.”

The standards took effect July 1 and are enforced by Cal/OSHA.