Neglect in agricultural safety and health regulations: Separate and unequal

Agricultural workers experience multiple occupational safety and health risks; this workforce has high rates of workplace injury, illness, and death. One would expect special protections for hired agricultural workers – but this expectation is far from being met. Hired agricultural workers are less protected from Federal occupational safety and health standards when compared to other private industry workers. Currently, the Occupational Safety and Health Act is promulgated through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with two major exclusions pertaining to hired agricultural workers. First, the agricultural industry is excluded from most regulations covering all general industries. Second, small agricultural operations are excluded from enforcement.

In contrast, current Washington State standards do not practice safety and health exclusions for hired agricultural workers. In 1993, Washington's Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) caved to the pressure of legal petitions, court decisions, and legislature influence and included agriculture into the horizontal general safety and health standards. However, little data exist to assess the effectiveness of Washington versus Federal agricultural safety and health standards, which results in no political action to disrupt high rates of injury, illness, and fatality among this population. We will explore the political history of L&I's agricultural safety and health standards; present the current data on injuries, illness, and fatalities among this industry; identify major gaps in federal regulation and practice that result in unequal protection of agricultural workers; and discuss useful changes that may help protect all agricultural workers in the nation from occupational injury and illness.