CORRECTING and REPLACING State Officials Issue Order to Prohibit Galt-based Farm...

CORRECTING and REPLACING State Officials Issue Order to Prohibit Galt-based Farm Labor Contractor from Operating

SAN FRANCISCO--(Business Wire)--
Please replace the release with the following corrected version
due to multiple revisions.

The corrected release reads:

STATE OFFICIALS ISSUE ORDER TO PROHIBIT GALT-BASED FARM LABOR
CONTRACTOR FROM OPERATING

The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) today issued an order
prohibiting Solis Farm Labor Contractor from operating in the fields
because of the company's failure to comply with heat illness
regulations, which poses a substantial threat to worker safety as
temperatures rise across the state.

"We are actively pursuing employers who fail to meet our heat
illness standards and as we did with Merced Farm Labor yesterday, we
are taking this step to ensure that workers employed by this company
are not put at risk,'' said DIR Director John Duncan. "We have
evidence to suggest that this company has failed to train its
employees and this order will be in force until the company is in full
compliance with California heat illness prevention regulations."

Along with Merced Farm Labor, Solis Farm Labor Contractor was an
employer at the Farmington vineyard where Maria Isabel Vasquez
Jimenez, a 17-year-old farmworker, became ill and later died after
working in high heat without water or shade. Solis Farm Labor
Contractor was identified in the course of the investigation into
working conditions at the vineyard where Vasquez Jimenez was employed.

California law requires outdoor employers to train supervisors and
employees about the symptoms of heat illness, have an emergency
medical assistance plan and provide shade and water to workers.

In the ongoing investigation of the Vasquez Jimenez case,
investigators uncovered evidence that leads them to suspect that Solis
Farm Labor Contractor may be continuing to hire and place workers in
unsafe and unhealthful working conditions, and as a result issued the
Order to Prohibit Use as a precaution.

In an enforcement sweep of more than 25 agricultural work sites in
San Joaquin County last week investigators found numerous violations
including 10 employers without illness and injury prevention plans and
20 violations of the heat illness prevention standard. Similar sweeps
of outdoor workplaces are conducted daily in most California counties
with special teams dispersed when temperatures rise to 100 degrees or
more, or when the Governor's Office of Emergency Services State
Warning Center issues a heat wave alert.

The DIR's Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE)
adjudicates wage claims, investigates discrimination and public works
complaints, and enforces state labor law and Industrial Welfare
Commission wage orders. The DIR's Division of Occupational Safety &
Health, Cal/OSHA, protects workers and the public from safety hazards
through its Cal/OSHA, elevator, amusement ride, aerial tramway, ski
lift and pressure vessel programs.

To learn more about the functions of the DIR, DLSE and Cal/OSHA,
visit our web site at www.dir.ca.gov. Employees that have work-related
questions or complaints can call the California Workers' Information
Hotline at 1-866-924-9757.

California Department of Industrial Relations
Dean Fryer or Kate McGuire, 415-703-5050

Copyright Business Wire 2008