As an example of the rapidly changing COVID-19 environment, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Cal/OSHA) has implemented an emergency action plan to address and prevent COVID-19 spread in the workplace. Adopted on November 30, 2020, these regulations went into effect immediately and apply to all California employees and places of employment, with the following exceptions: (1) worksites with one employee who does not have contact with other persons, (2) employees working from home, and (3) employees subject to Cal/OSHA’s aerosol transmissible disease regulations. The regulations remain in effect for six months. The regulations are extensive and require detailed planning and specified actions to be taken in each of the following areas: Detailed COVID-19 Prevention and Action Plan
Employers must establish and implement a detailed and effective written plan and prevention program. An approved model plan which a business may adapt can be accessed at: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/dosh_publications/CPP.doc Identifying, Evaluating and Correcting COVID-19 Hazards
In addition to taking the normal precautions of employee screening, social distancing, masks, cleaning and disinfecting regularly, employers must identify unsafe or unhealthy work conditions or practices and high risk areas (i.e., where employees congregate) and evaluate how to reduce those health and infection risks. Mitigation measures could include changing traffic patterns or break times, improving filtration systems, and creating partitions in areas where workers cannot maintain physical distance (with or without masks). Training and Educating Employees
Employers must advise employees of the hazards of COVID-19, the preventative measures employees should be taking and the Company’s procedures for preventing and addressing positive cases in the workplace. Responding to Covid-19 Cases
This includes taking each of the following steps (this is in addition to workers’ compensation reporting and possibly other requirements): - Determining when the COVID-19 case was last in the workplace, and if possible the date of testing and onset of symptoms
- Determining which employees may have been exposed to COVID-19 and notifying
those employees within one business day of the precautions they must take, including remaining off site for the appropriate quarantine period
- Offer testing to potentially exposed employees at no cost and during working hours
- Investigate the exposure, whether workplace conditions could have contributed to the risk of exposure, and what corrections would reduce exposure
Record Keeping
The regulations specify the Company’s outside reporting requirements, the confidentiality procedures that must be in place to protect an employee’s medical information, and the Company’s obligations with respect to internal record keeping. Continuation of Pay and Benefits
A new and unexpected aspect of the regulations is the following requirement for employees who are excluded from the workplace and unable to work due to having contracted or being exposed to COVID-19 at the workplace: “employers shall continue and maintain an employee’s earnings, seniority, and all other employee rights and benefits, including the employee's right to their former job status, as if the employee had not been removed from their job. Employers may use employer-provided employee sick leave benefits for this purpose and consider benefit payments from public sources in determining how to maintain earnings, rights and benefits, where permitted by law and when not covered by workers’ compensation.” Employees who are able to work remotely, have other reasons for not working, or were not exposed to COVID-19 at the workplace are not entitled to continuation of pay and benefits under this section (employees may qualify for continued pay or benefits under other other legal mandates). Returning to Work
Contrary to earlier advisories, although employers must offer tests to employees who have been exposed to a positive case at work, the employer may not require a negative test in order for the employee to return to work. Rather, the employee must meet the following guidelines before returning to work: - An employee who tests positive and has COVID-19 symptoms shall not return to work until (1) at least 24 hours have passed since a fever of 100.4 or higher has resolved without the use of fever-reducing medications; (2) COVID-19 symptoms have improved; and (3) at least 10 days have passed since COVID-19 symptoms first appeared.
- An employee who tested positive but never developed COVID-19 symptoms shall not return to work until a minimum of 10 days have passed since the date of specimen collection of their first positive COVID-19 test.
Please note the CDC criteria for returning employees to work is also evolving and may not coincide directly with this criteria. Industry and labor representatives will be meeting with Cal/OSHA this month to review the requirements of the emergency regulation and solicit feedback and recommend updates More detailed information on the Cal/OSHA regulations can be found at these websites: https://www.dir.ca.gov/oshsb/documents/noticeNov2020-COVID-19-Prevention-Emergency.pdf https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/coronavirus/COVID19FAQs.html
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