Audit Calls Out Cal/OSHA Staffing, Case Management System

The state agency tasked with enforcing worker safety rules was recently on the receiving end of a critical audit that questioned its staffing levels, its processes and policies, and antiquated case management systems. But the audit also offered officials a chance to highlight ongoing IT investment.

The Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) was the focus of the audit, which outlined, among other things, the need to move away from physical, analog case files toward an electronic system.

“To more consistently, accurately and efficiently perform its work, Cal/OSHA should, by July 2027, develop and implement an electronic case management system that allows it to maintain and manage case files digitally rather than in hard copy,” State Auditor Grant Parks wrote in the audit recommendations. “Cal/OSHA should consider developing the system in such a manner that it alerts personnel to any missing documents before allowing personnel to close each case in the system.”

Another recommendation posed by the State Auditor centered on the need for a “tool or portal that allows complainants to submit complaints online directly to Cal/OSHA.”

But the findings came as no surprise to Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) leadership, who took the opportunity to highlight that both recommendations were already being addressed in a modernization build-out that began in 2024. DIR is the umbrella agency over Cal/OSHA.

The June 27 response was written by then-Director Katrina S. Hagen, who has since joined CPS HR Consulting as its chief executive officer. She noted that the new system would eliminate the division’s heavy reliance on paper case files and antiquated processes, writing that the largest such division in the U.S. “lags behind other states in terms of technology and automation.”

“Currently, Cal/OSHA uses the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Information System (OIS), which does not meet our state-mandated needs, and we still rely heavily on paper case files to capture many California requirements not captured in OIS,” Hagen wrote in the audit response. “The limitations of this system were especially felt during the pandemic when Cal/OSHA received a record number of complaints and had challenges accessing information on our enforcement activities.”

That data modernization information technology project is expected to be live in 2027 and had an $18.2 million one-time allocation in the 2025-26 fiscal year budget. It will also have a component that allows for online complaint reporting, Hagen noted in her response.

DIR, for its part, is also receiving $44.9 million for two technology projects — $25.8 million for continued work on the Electronic Adjudication Management System and $19.1 million for ongoing Public Works Information Technology System enhancements.