Happy new year!
On December 15, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) voted to update the COVID-19 (ETS) transitional emergency criteria with non-emergency COVID-19 prevention regulations. Cal/OSHA has an employer consultant on the new rules.
Once the Office of Administrative Law completes its review and approval by the end of this month, the maximum of the new regulations will be in effect for two years, with record-keeping needs in place for 3 years. The existing HTA will remain in place until the amendments are adopted. .
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Employers will have to provide face coverings in workplaces where the latest California Department of Public Health (CRPD) rules require it. CRPD rules lately require the use of masks only in fitness centers, long-term care centers, and adult and senior care facilities. All employers will have to continue to allow their workers to cover their faces.
Employers will need to test for COVID-19 to lose workers’ rate and paid hours after exposure to close contact.
The OSHSB has reexplained the “close touch” based on the length of the workplace. In indoor areas of 400,000 cubic feet or less consistent with the floor, close contact is explained as sharing the same indoor area as a user with COVID-19 for a cumulative total of at least 15 minutes over 24 hours, according to the infectious status of the inflamed user. or longer for a constant 24-hour period. “Offices, suites, dormitories, waiting rooms, break rooms or dining rooms, bathrooms or other areas” separated through floor-to-ceiling walls are considered separate internal areas.
Employers will need to continue to exclude other people with COVID-19 from the office until they are no longer contagious and will need to maintain policies to prevent transmission after close contact.
OSHSB removes legal responsibility to pay excluded workers
Employers will no longer have to pay painters as long as they don’t have paints due to COVID-19 infection or exposure. Instead, an employer who excludes those painters from the office will want to inform them of the COVID-19 benefits they would likely benefit from. This would possibly come with benefits to be obtained under legally compulsory health leave where applicable, painters’ reimbursement legislation, local government requirements, the employer’s own leave policies, and guaranteed leave through the contract.
According to an Associated Press article published in the Union-Tribune after the OSHSB action, this update was made “in part because the rule is harder to enforce. The coronavirus is now so prevalent that it’s much harder to know where someone got sick.
The state legislature imposed more paid leave for COVID-19 for health issues through Dec. 31, 2022. According to the AP report, “it is unclear whether lawmakers will extend it through 2023. “
The new regulations allow employers to integrate their COVID-19 prevention policies into their overall injury and illness prevention plan instead of having an express standalone COVID-19 plan.
Robert Mutrie of the California Chamber of Commerce suggested the OSHSB eliminate COVID-19 regulations altogether. He cited Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stated goal of ending the coronavirus emergency declaration in February and all similar executive orders. This appeal was not granted.
A silver lining in the transition from emergency criteria to non-emergency regulations
As Moutrie commented in an article after the vote, OSHSB’s latest action means that “California’s commercial network deserves to see a slowdown in the speed of updating COVID-19 regulations. In recent years, the text of COVID-Regulation 19 (as well as CRPD-related FAQs and guidance) has been an evolving target, with replacements and updates every few months. Frequent replacements have pushed HR professionals, lawyers, and especially small business owners into a frenzied state of constant updating. . OSHSB says it is running on a permanent rule.
Therefore, regulators and legislators seem to be building a sustainable legal framework to fight COVID-19 than adopting transient measures to solve a transience problem. This new technique to combat a coronavirus that, since its inception, has evolved faster than the speed of the law. It is welcome and deeply depressing.
Dan Eaton is the spouse of the San Diego law firm Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek, where his practice focuses on advocating and advising employers. He is also an instructor at San Diego State University’s Fowler School of Business, where he teaches courses in business ethics and employment law. He can be reached on eaton@scmv. com. Su Twitter account is @DanEatonlaw
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