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In 2014, the Cal/OSHA Division received a petition for a new workplace violence regulation for general industry.  Petition 542, which was originally submitted on behalf of teachers, has been used as the basis for consideration of a general industry standard on workplace violence.  This year, the CA Standards Board, the entity that promulgates new CA…

Healthcare employers in California must comply with a host of new workplace safety requirements, effective April 1, 2017, on preventing workplace violence. The new requirements include written workplace violence prevention plans, additional recordkeeping, and preventive training, among other things.

Click here for the full list of requirements and contact your Jackson Lewis attorney is you…

California enforces its own mining and tunneling regulations through Cal/OSHA’s Mining and Tunneling Unit.  The main function of this specialized unit is to investigate complaints and accidents in mines and tunnels and to issue citations to employers that violate regulations.

Click here for the full article and the training schedule from our MSHA Law Advisor

In October 2016, Governor Brown signed and approved Senate Bill 1167 which went into effect on January 1, 2017. The law directs Cal/OSHA to draft and propose heat illness and injury prevention standards for indoor workplaces by January 1, 2019.

Click here to learn more about how the bill affects employers at our OSHA Law

On June 1, 2016, The California Occupational Safety and Health Division issued a “High Heat Advisory,” warning employers to protect their outdoor workers from heat illness as temperatures hit extreme highs this week — well over 100 degrees in many locations. This Advisory provides a timely reminder of California’s Heat Illness Prevention (“HIP”) regulation, adopted last year, which set specific requirements for potable water, shade, cool-down periods, high-heat procedures, emergency preparedness, and acclimatization, training, and heat illness prevention plans. Here’s a summary of the HIP regulation’s key requirements:

Potable Water Requirements

Employers must provide employees with access to potable drinking water that is fresh, pure, suitably cool, and provided free of charge to employees and should be located as close as practicable to the areas where employees are working, unless the employer can demonstrate infeasibility.  The employer must provide each employee with a minimum of one quart of water per hour for the entire shift.
Continue Reading High Heat Alert in California

The budget change proposal for the 2016/17 Fiscal Year [document: <http://web1a.esd.dof.ca.gov/Documents/bcp/1617/FY1617_ORG7350_BCP474.pdf>] submitted by Governor Brown last month contains significant proposed changes to the operation of the Labor & Workforce Development Agency (“LWDA”), the agency responsible for overseeing the Private Attorney Generals Act of 2004 (“PAGA”)   including the creation of a “PAGA Unit” with the authority to intervene and object to the adequacy of the settlement funds designated to PAGA claims. The budget requests a $1.6 million increase to the operation budget to cover additional staffing needs for the agency and an additional $1.5 million going forward to “stabilize and improve the handling of PAGA cases.”  The budget proposal justifies the request for additional resources to increase the LWDA’s effectiveness.
Continue Reading Governor Brown’s Proposed PAGA Unit May Have Power to Challenge PAGA Settlement in Court

Originally posted on BLR.com. For more information and to register, click here and enter code “Speakfree” to register free-of-charge compliments of Jackson Lewis.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

1:30 to 3 p.m. Eastern/10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Pacific 

Flu season seems to come earlier these days. And, when it strikes, it lasts longer and is more severe.
Continue Reading Complimentary Live Webinar! California Flu Preparation: How to Protect Workers and Comply with Cal/OSHA’s New ATD Standard

When the outdoor temperature tops 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the cool, air-conditioned comfort of a retail store may be a refuge for salespeople, but it is easy to forget that many other retail employees (including truck drivers, loaders, mechanics, janitors, maintenance personnel, cart attendants, and warehouse crews) may be feeling the heat in their workplaces.
Continue Reading Sales May Sizzle, But Keep Employees Cool

Violence is a leading cause of workplace deaths in the last 15 years and causes 48 percent of worker deaths in the retail industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Protecting retail stores is particularly challenging because they are open, public, high-traffic spaces with cash on hand, sometimes late-night operations, and with high employer turnover and stress. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2013, 85 percent of retail industry workplace violence involved some sort of crime. The rest may occur because a customer targeted a store or employee, an employee attacked coworkers or the company, or domestic or gang violence followed an employee to work. Moreover, violence may not always mean physical violence. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration defines violence to include intimidating and threatening conduct, and California recently passing a law that targets “abusive” behavior.
Continue Reading Retailer’s Guide to Defending Against Workplace Violence