In 1973, the California Occupational Safety and Health Regulations were promulgated. With a few exceptions, employers of labor in California are required to take to Cal/OSHA. As one of the 25 states whose safety and health programs have the federal government’s approval, such plans, if they exist, precede the federal OSHA.
The Cal/OSHA covers nearly every employer and employees (civil servants inclusive) in California. Although federal employers are exempted, they are obligated under the requirements of the federal OSHA. Back in California, the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) within the Labor and Workforce Development Agency of the state is primarily responsible for overseeing the Cal/OSHA program.
There are General Industry Safety Orders under the Cal/OSHA that cover most employers. However, it should be noted that the applicable ones are unique to the nature of a definite workplace. So, these safety orders differ from one industry to another. Since there is no hard and fast rule to which safety order is applicable, where a conflict occurs as to which is applicable, the precise industry Safety Order can be applied. Some of the most usually mentioned GISOs are as follows:
COVID-19 (AB 685)
Coming into effect on January 1, 2021, the AB 685 increases the authority of the Cal/OSHA to make Orders Prohibiting Use (OPU) for workstations that suggest certain risks of some impending danger associated with COVID-19.
The law also demands employers to offer notice within a business day of likely exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace to every employee present at the workstation within the communicable period that may have been open to the viral infection. What’s more, the AB 685 improves reporting benchmarks to domestic health agencies in the occurrence of a COVID-19 pandemic in the work environment.
Rapid changes have occurred in the workforce since the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Many employers
either furloughed or terminated employees, or asked employees to take unpaid leave, rather than provide their
employees with the accommodations required to work remotely, or change their employees’ job tasks.
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employers must reasonably accommodate any
employee with a disability. As COVID-19 is a respiratory illness, one such disability could be “inability to
breathe.” Certain guidelines issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) provide
significant deference to employers in avoiding a community spread of the virus, however it is not a blanket
endorsement of disability or national origin discrimination.
Your employer could make changes such as:
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