SB 20: Senator Caroline Menjivar’s (D-Van Nuys) bill to place new restrictions on engineered stone fabrication shops was approved 6-0 by the Senate Appropriations Committee. It is now under consideration by the full chamber. The bill is the second attempt in as many years to initiate a certification process for these fabrication shops in light …
Several bills of interest to California’s occupational safety and health community are moving through their respective houses of origin. Here’s the status of the latest legislation. AB 694, by Assemblyman Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), seeks to develop a “pipeline program” for the Cal/OSHA inspection force, given its longstanding vacancy rate and difficulty finding enough qualified inspectors. …
After an Assembly bill last session that would have required fabricators of engineered stone to be certified and employees to certify through training failed, a state senator is reviving the measure in the new legislative session. Some see the bill as a legislative usurpation of Cal/OSHA’s responsibility to develop standards. Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando …
California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, has vetoed the most controversial occupational safety and health-related legislation while approving four others. Vetoed is SB 1299 (Dave Cortese, D-Campbell), which would have created a rebuttable presumption that an outdoor heat-related injury in agriculture is work-related for purposes of workers’ compensation, providing the employer is deemed to have violated any …
The bill that would have required shops that fabricate engineered stone—silica—to be licensed and registered is off the table following opposition from Cal/OSHA and the governor’s office. Assemblyman Luz Rivas (D-San Fernando Valley) withdrew AB 3043 when it became clear that the bill would likely be vetoed. Since the California Legislature is near the end …
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board voted to essentially put off a petition requiring “opioid antagonists”—read Narcon—in first-aid kits that every California employer must have. It sent the idea to an advisory committee. Members and stakeholders have serious qualms about the idea, and there seems to be little likelihood that the Board will make any regulatory change …
The California Labor Commissioner is proposing more than $5 million in penalties against Amazon for alleged violations of AB 701, a 2021 law intended to curb warehouse quota abuse. The state alleges that Amazon warehouses in Moreno Valley and Redlands used a “peer-to-peer” quota system, which it says is exactly the kind of quota scheme …
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board will vote next week on a petition requiring employers to have and maintain opioid-reversal medication at worksites. The Division of Occupational Safety and Health supports the petition in its entirety, but Board staff has reservations. The proposed decision takes a middle approach. The petition, filed by the National Safety Council, seeks …