Earlier this month, Worksafe submitted a detailed comment letter to the Future of Work Commission with our recommendations regarding the impact of emerging technologies on diverse communities and the occupational health and safety of workers. 

The Commission, part of the state's Labor & Workforce Development Agency, is tasked with developing “a new social compact for California workers, based on an expansive vision for economic equity that takes work and jobs as the starting point.” Our letter, which you can read here, urged that the Commission’s work be “centered on race since structural racism sits at the foundation and intersection of all the issues affecting vulnerable workers.”

The Commission’s mission is to understand, analyze, and make recommendations around the current state of jobs and work and articulate a “vision for work and jobs in the future.” Worksafe urges that any such vision be placed in the appropriate larger context:

The “Future of Work” and the “social compact” that the Commission seeks to create will not only affect the workplace and working conditions, but the overall health of workers, their families, and their communities....

Worker experiences and expertise [are] critical to understanding how to structure informed solutions that lead to effective measures to prevent worker injury, illness, and death. Moreover, it is critical that government agencies are adequately resourced to enforce California’s laws, standards, and regulations.

Worksafe Managing Attorney Jora Trang took the lead in authoring the powerful comment letter, which we are proud to have submitted jointly with numerous close allies. The letter urges that "health equity, race equity, and occupational health and safety are critical, foundational issues that must be considered" as we envision the Future of Work.

Worksafe’s mission is to bring justice and power to the California workplace in order to prevent injury, illness, and death on the job. Central to that mission is our strong belief that any social compact regarding the Future of Work must be considered in light of day-to-day realities facing vulnerable workers whose lives and limbs are at risk every day.