Director’s Decision on An Appeal of a County Agricultural Commissioner Decision (Santa Fe Nursery, Inc., Docket Number 167)

The Director’s decision on Santa Fe Nursery, Inc.’s appeal of the civil penalty levied by the Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner (CAC) is enclosed. The Director affirmed the Santa Barbara CAC’s action and the decision became final on December 2, 2011. I ask you to pay special attention to this decision because it addresses some erroneous arguments made by employers.

The Santa Barbara CAC found Santa Fe Nursery, Inc. (Santa Fe) in violation of Title 3 California Code of Regulations (3 CCR), section 6766(c), and levied a $1,400 penalty. Santa Fe failed to ensure their employees were taken to a physician immediately when it was reasonable to suspect the employees had pesticide-related illnesses or injuries. Santa Fe appealed the Santa Barbara CAC’s civil penalty action to the Director. The Director concurred with the CAC’s action, and Santa Fe then appealed to the Superior Court. The Superior Court upheld the Director’ s decision and dismissed the appeal.

This decision addresses the following concepts/issues

• For a Class A violation, a health hazard is not necessarily a serious or an acute illness; it is also the risk of an adverse health effect.
• 3 CCR, section 6766(c), requires employers to take employees, suspected of having a pesticide-related illness or injury, immediately to a physician.
• The time frame for an “immediate” action occurs when the employer has reasonable grounds to suspect an employee has a pesticide-related illness or injury. At that point, transporting the employee to a physician is the next required action.
• The requirement to take an employee immediately to a physician is a requirement the employer must comply with and is not a decision that can be delegated to the employee. 3 CCR, section 6766(c), is not limited to workers who enter treated fields. In this case, the Director determined that it also applied to employees working adjacent to a treated area.

Please make this information available to your staff as a reference in preparing cases. If you have any questions, please contact Mr. David Haskell, Research Program Specialist II, at 916-445-4207 or the Enforcement Branch Liaison assigned to your county.

Sincerely,