1. Department of Industrial Relations

About Us

Who We Are

The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) protects and improves the health, safety, and economic well-being of over 18 million wage earners and helps their employers comply with state labor laws. DIR is housed within the Labor & Workforce Development Agency.

Our Role

How DIR strives to build a safe and fair workplace and a thriving economy

Improve working conditions Defend Californians' workplace rights
Improve safety and health in the workplace Keep Californians safe on the job
Ensure effective workers' compensation Protect California's injured workers
Battle the underground economy Strengthen California's economy

The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) was established in 1927. Its mission is to improve working conditions for California's wage earners and to advance opportunities for profitable employment in California. DIR administers and enforces laws governing wages, hours and breaks, overtime, retaliation, workplace safety and health, apprenticeship training programs, and medical care and other benefits for injured workers. DIR also publishes materials and holds workshops and seminars to promote healthy employment relations, conducts research to improve its programs, and coordinates with other agencies to target egregious violators of labor laws and tax laws in the underground economy.

It's all in a day's work for DIR employees ...

It's all in a day's work for DIR employees, whether they are adjudicating a wage claim for an employee who was dismissed and not paid final wages, inspecting a workplace for unsafe chemical exposure, advising employers on ergonomics, tracing the history of an industrial accident, establishing an apprenticeship program for child care workers, or advising an injured worker on how to apply for workers' compensation. DIR employees include safety engineers, industrial hygienists, deputy labor commissioners, workers' compensation judges, apprenticeship consultants, research program specialists, information technicians, educators, analysts, attorneys, communications staff, and office support staff.

The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) is strongly committed to the values of integrity and accountability in public service. DIR holds its workforce to high ethical standards, including through compliance with these legal requirements.

Transparency through Financial Disclosure

To help ensure that government serves the public interest, California’s Political Reform Act requires every public official who makes or influences government decisions to disclose any personal financial interests that could be affected by those decisions. Disclosure keeps government accountable by:

  • Enabling the public to determine whether an official’s decision enhances their personal finances and
  • Reminding the official of their responsibility to abstain from participating in decisions that would create a conflict of interest, or require the official to choose between their personal interest and the best interest of the public.

Each official subject to this requirement discloses their financial interests when they assume and leave office, and annually while holding office, by filing a Statement of Economic Interests, also known as Form 700. Members of the public may request the Form 700s of a DIR official by emailing DIR’s filing officer at Form700@dir.ca.gov.

Training for Ethical Public Service

State government employees required to disclose their personal financial interests must also take ethics training within six months of appointment and every two years while they remain in office. Like Form 700s, records of training completion are publicly available on request. A request may be submitted to DIR’s filing officer by email at Form700@dir.ca.gov.

Prohibiting Incompatible Activities

California law requires each state agency to develop an Incompatible Activities Statement that identifies unofficial activities that would create conflicts of interest for agency employees and prohibits them from engaging in these activities. DIR’s Incompatible Activities Statement is posted here to facilitate accountability by providing public access.

More about DIR

Other California agencies that enforce related laws

January 2022