LOS ANGELES—Cal/OSHA last month issued over $11,000 in fines to gay porn producer Jake Cruise Media for workplace violations that included not having an Exposure Control Plan, shooting porn without barrier protections and not having an Illness Prevention Program for employees. The first two are considered "Serious" violations, while the third is labeled as "Other." The first two citations incurred fines of $5,400 each, and the third of $560, for a total of $11,360.
The official investigation by Cal/OSHA was opened March 28, 2014, and closed on July 28. The three citations were issued August 4, 2014.
According to Jake Cruise, who responded to a request for comment late today, while he has stopped shooting porn in California, the citations issued by Cal/OSHA were for California-based productions.
"The citations were issued for bareback shoots shot in Los Angeles," he told AVN in an email. "They came to my office to start the investigation at the very end of March while I was at the Phoenix Forum. The fines were for shoots I produced in California during the 6 months prior to the beginning of the investigation."
That said, Cruise adds that he is fighting the fines. "I did appeal the citations," he told AVN. "I stopped producing in California last April. My content is now produced by other production companies in Prague, Florida, and Nevada. I’ll be trying out a new producer in Spain this month. This is not how I would prefer to produce my content. Things change and the business has to change with it."
When asked if Cal/OSHA had, as part of the citation process, placed any further requirements on how or what he shoots, Cruise replied, "At no time did anyone from Cal/OSHA suggest that I change the content of my production. They required that I follow their regulations if I produced in California. I made the decision to continue giving my customers what they want to see. It’s simply being produced outside of California."
Regarding the filing of the complaint against his company, Cruise noted, "Cal/OSHA cannot say who filed the complaint against me. It seems to me that the person who put out the press release you read seemed to have been looking for the publication of the fines, as if he knew that they were coming. But it’s just a guess."
The press release Cruise is referring to was issued late yesterday by AIDS Healthcare Foundation. In it, AHF president Michael Weinstein says, "California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s latest fine to an adult film industry production company—in this instance, to Jake Cruise Media—for bareback filming serves as a reminder to the industry that condom use in adult film production already is—and remains—the law under existing Cal/OSHA authority,
“The porn industry has simply chosen to ignore these laws, with few, if any, repercussions to date for producers," he adds. "We are glad to see that OSHA is looking out for worker safety and reminding the entire industry that condom use—regardless of past or future legislation in Sacramento—already is the law."
But the press release "is factually incorrect," observes Cruise, who adds, "There is no law requiring condom use in porn in California. There are regulations of employee safety that require exposure control, etc.. Regulations, not laws.
"I will tell you this," he continues. "Any fine is a mosquito bite compared to the damage done to my business by piracy. I’m not going to swat a mosquito biting my arm when a shark is biting off my leg."
Interestingly, while AHF likes to characterize fines issued to adult companies as noteworthy, Cal/OSHA, on its list of Notable Citations Issued, fails to include the ones levied against Jake Cruise Media.
Of note, it has been exactly ten years since the first Cal/OSHA citations were issued against adult companies Evasive Angles and TTB Productions for violating health and safety regulations.
