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Real Challenges to Cal/OSHA’s COVID Regs

Two challenges from very different perspectives seek to upend Cal/OSHA’s semi-permanent COVID-19 regulation: one challenges the reg for the abuses the petitioner says it creates, the other on legal grounds. Ricardo Beas, a San Diego-area safety manager, has petitioned the Standards Board to “convene an emergency meeting to rescind” in its entirely the regulation, General … Read More »

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Cal/OSHA COVID Update

Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health is advising employers to follow new guidelines issued by the California Department of Public Health on COVID procedures in the workplace. The changes affect the definition of “infectious period” and provide testing recommendations. The new definition of infectious period for the purposes of the Cal/OSHA standard, General Industry … Read More »

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DOSH Pushes Back on Employer Complaints

Employer representatives have complained long and loud about what they see as a lack of meaningful interaction with Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health during the development of health standards. Topics include silica, wildfire smoke, COVID, lead, and indoor heat illness. Lead, in particular, has been a recent focus of criticism, given the significant … Read More »

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UCs New Vaccine Policy

Employees and students in the University of California system can now opt out of its mRNA vaccination requirement against COVID-19. But the phrasing chosen by the university to announce the choice sound dystopian: “the University will require students and employees either to receive or affirmatively decline COVID-19 vaccination.” But now that the policy is optional, … Read More »

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End of an Era – Thankfully

The end of February marked the end of a three-year state of emergency in California brought on by Governor Gavin Newsom, which shut down the state and created vast negative economic consequences in contrast to other states. In terminating the SOE, his news release said, “the conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons … Read More »

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New COVID Rules Adopted

More Injury and Illness Data

California workplace injury and illness data for 2021 shows slightly higher metrics over 2020 for all employment sectors. Private industry showed a slight decrease. Here are additional and more detailed statistics from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, including the highest recordable incident rates, the percentage of cases that resulted in days away from … Read More »

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Board Demands Exclusion Pay In New Covid Standard

For months, labor has criticized the decision by Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health to drop “exclusion pay” from the non-emergency version of the COVID prevention standard. Its advocacy has paid off. During the Standards Board’s October meeting in San Diego, several members of the Board, including Chair David Thomas, forcefully urged DOSH to … Read More »

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