New Deputy Director Appointed to CA Department of Industrial Relations

A seasoned veteran of the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) has been appointed as its new Chief Deputy Director.  She is Christine Baker, well known to Mercer ORC Networks’ WOSH Group as the Executive Officer of the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation (CHSWC).  She will become Acting Director on April 1, 2011, replacing current Director John Duncan.  Her interim status will continue until the conclusion of an ongoing review of the mission and functions of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA), the parent Agency.

The Division of Occupational Safety and Health, including Cal/OSHA, and the Division of Workers' Compensation are part of the DIR.  It is anticipated that the LWDA will be eliminated as part of the review process, and the DIR might become a Cabinet position reporting directly to the Governor.  In her new position, Baker’s focus will be on streamlining the DIR by finding efficiencies, reducing costs, and eliminating boards and commissions.  The OSH Standards Board is rumored to be at risk of elimination as part of that process.

Baker’s appointment is supported by business representatives and Cal/OSHA Chief Len Welsh because she has more than 20 years of experience in management positions at the DIR, and is viewed as moderate.  As the leader of the CHSWC since 1994, she worked with a board composed of labor and management members and has sought bipartisan solutions to workers compensation and occupational safety and health issues.  She is also well versed in legislative relations because CHSWC research has served as the basis for legislative activity on related subjects. 

Baker was the chief of the Division of Labor Statistics and Research and the Deputy Director for the Division of Workers' Compensation before joining the CHSWC.