The pandemic exposed shortcomings in Oregon's labor laws. A bill would let workers take matters into

The pandemic exposed shortcomings in Oregon’s labor laws. A bill would let workers take matters into their own hands


Beatriz Tapia, a farmworker from Woodburn, phoned into a legislative committee hearing last week to tell lawmakers a story about unsanitary bathrooms, losing her job and how a state agency didn’t have her back.

Speaking in Spanish with the help of a translator, Tapia told a subcommittee of the Oregon House Judiciary that in October she was working on a farm where four toilets were shared with 20 workers. She said the bathrooms hadn’t been cleaned in eight days and there was no soap or water for workers to wash their hands, a health and safety concern amid the Covid pandemic.

Tapia said she was fired after complaining to her boss. So she filed a complaint with the Oregon Occupational Health and Safety Administration, an agency in charge of enforcing the state’s Covid rules that require additional sanitation and social distancing at workplaces.

But she said the agency investigated the wrong company and her complaint went nowhere. She said that the Oregon Occupational Health and Safety Administration is supposed to ensure workers like her have clean and safe working conditions.

Read more: https://www.salemreporter.com/posts/3765/the-pandemic-exposed-shortcomings-in-oregons-labor-laws-a-bill-would-let-workers-take-matters-into-their-own-hands