State closes Merced Farm Labor

Firm not meeting heat safety rules, state says

By SCOTT JASON
MERCED SUN-STAR

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MERCED -- The company that employed the 17-year-old girl who died of a heat stroke has been shut down by the state for a second time after briefly reopening.

Merced Farm Labor sent its laborers back to the fields this past week after it proved to Cal-OSHA that it met all heat protection requirements. The agency had shut down the company in mid-June because it wasn't making sure all employees received heat training.

On Thursday afternoon at a Keyes vineyard, state inspectors found the company wasn't meeting the regulations. They ordered the company to close until the issue is resolved.

"They're lacking in providing the level of protection we need," said Dean Fryer, spokesman for the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. "They had a brief window to step up and it's not happening."

Fryer didn't know which of the four heat safety requirements -- training, water, shade and having an emergency plan -- the company wasn't meeting.

Labor officials will meet with company managers, probably Monday, to resolve the problems. Then the company could reopen.

Merced Farm Labor announced Wednesday that it had resumed its operations. Officials couldn't be reached for comment about the state closing it again.

Cal-OSHA has kept close tabs on the company to ensure it's following all labor regulations after the death of Maria Isavel Vasquez Jimenez. The United Farm Workers union was "appalled" the business would be allowed to reopen after the May 16 death from work- related heat stroke in a vineyard near Farmington.

The death caused renewed attention to farm labor companies, and state officials closed Merced Farm Labor to keep its workers out of danger because it failed to meet all the heat illness prevention rules.

Cal-OSHA lifted the ban late last week, though the company waited to reopen until Monday so it could make sure it had all the training programs in place.