Workplace Safety

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On February 20, 2015, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted on new changes to the Heat Illness Prevention regulation. The Standards Board voted 5-1 to approve the proposed amended statute. Marley Heart, Executive Director of the Standards Board, requested the Office of Administrative Review to allow for an early effective date. The…

Cal/OSHA recently issued interim safety guidelines for preventing exposure to the Ebola virus. California’s guidelines are aimed at identifying safety practices for the types of workers Federal officials have identified to be at potential risk of exposure in this country, including health care workers, emergency responders, laboratory staff, mortuary workers, airline flight crews, airport staff, border protection workers, and quarantine operations staff.

Since California’s workplace safety and health standards are more stringent than the federal standards for infectious diseases such as Ebola, California’s guidelines are drawn from the state standards. The new guidance recommends employers do the following:
Continue Reading Cal/OSHA Issues Guidance on Ebola Virus

Cal/OSHA is reminding all employers to protect their outdoor workers from the risk of heat illness, as temperatures in parts of Southern California climb into the upper 90s today and will continue to rise through the weekend and into early next week.

“California’s heat illness standards are the strongest in the country, and we will…

On August 8, 2014, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (“Cal OSH Board”) proposed revisions to its Heat Prevention Regulations at Title 8, Section 3395 (“Section 3395”).   According to the Cal OSH Board, the revisions are aimed at improving worker safety in all outdoor places of employment and reducing the incidence of heat illness.  Although the proposed revisions have not yet been adopted, outdoor employers should closely watch the Board’s upcoming actions because the revisions may require them to invest significant resources to change their programs, training, and approach to the prevention of heat illness.
Continue Reading Cal OSH Board Proposes Revisions to Heat Prevention Regulations

New law SB 1360 has clarified that recovery periods, like rest periods, are paid time. This is a significant clarification of the law since there was an ambiguity in the past whether recovery periods were to be treated as paid time or unpaid time. Until now, the situation was unclear as recovery periods were mandated by California Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA) regulations, not the California Labor Code.
Continue Reading Recovery Periods, Like Rest Periods, are Compensable Time

Employers in the construction industry throughout California must prepare for an increase in the number of California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“Cal/OSHA”) inspectors who will check employers’ fall protection safety systems.  The increase in inspections is a response to the events that occurred between May 18 and May 21, 2014, when four construction workers…

As the days grow warmer, California employers with outdoor places of employment should think about compliance with California’s Heat Illness Prevention Regulations (Cal. Code of Regs. tit. 8, § 3395). To comply with the regulations, California employers should take four essential steps:

  • Develop and implement written procedures for addressing heat illness prevention;
  • Train employees and

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Originally posted by SmartRecruiters Blog, the leading source for how to hire on the web. To view the original post, please click here.

So you’re a startup. You’ve decided to take your world-changing idea and move it out of your dorm room/garage/favorite-table-at-Starbucks and start a legitimate business. So what next?

If you plan on

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Labor Code 226.7 provides that an employee should receive one hour of pay as a penalty for not receiving rest or meal periods in accordance with California law. Yesterday, Governor Brown signed into law SB 435 which expands the one hour of pay penalty to missed “recovery periods.”  The new law applies to any meal,…