Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Media Communications & Client Services Specialist Lauren Stumpf discuss Cal/OSHA’s proposed Permanent COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Standards.

Show Notes: Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter
Cal/OSHA’s Formal Proposal Document
www.DIR.CA.gov/dosh/
Rancho Mesa's COVID-19 Prevention Program Template

Director/Host: Alyssa Burley

Guest: Lauren Stumpf

Producer/Editor: Megan Lockhart

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence

transcript

[Introduction]

Alyssa Burley: Hi! This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa’s Media Communications and Client Services Department. Thank you for listening to today’s top Rancho Mesa news brought to you by our safety and risk management network, StudioOne™. Welcome back, everyone. My guest is Lauren Stumpf, Media Communications and Client Services Specialist with Rancho Mesa. Today, we’re going to discuss Cal/OSHA’s proposed permanent COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Standards (or the ETS). Lauren, welcome to the show.

Lauren Stumpf: Hi Alyssa, thanks for having me.

AB: Now, California’s current COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards (or ETS) are set to expire at the end of 2022. Just as we thought that this might be the end of the COVID-19 standards, Cal/OSHA has released a proposal for new “permanent” standards. Lauren, can you give us a little bit of information about how long we can expect these new standards to be in place if they’re actually adopted?

LS: Sure! The proposed permanent COVID standards will be voted on during the December 15th, 2022 Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board meeting. Despite the word “permanent” being in the title, the standards will go into effect for the following 2 years if passed. And the record keeping requirements of the standards will apply for the following 3 years. So, the new standards would be implemented on January 1st, 2023. This means, the new standards can be expected to lift on January 1st, 2025, and the recordkeeping requirements can be expected to lift on January 1st, 2026.

AB: Okay, so what are the main differences between the current temporary standards and the proposed new ones?

LS: Some proposed changes within the Permanent COVID-19 Standards include:

Notice Requirements: what information employers need to include in exposure notices to employees, and the acceptable ways in which employers must distribute those notices.
Definition Changes to what is considered, “Close Contact”, “Exposed Group”, “Infectious Period”, “Returned Cases”, “An outbreak”, and more.
And another difference is The Absence of Exclusion Pay. Under the current ETS, employers have to provide exclusion pay before requiring employees to exhaust other forms of potential paid leave. With the new proposed standards this is eliminated and the employer would only be required to provide information of benefits their employees would be entitled to under state and federal law. Employers would only need to provide information to employees about COVID-19 benefits they may be entitled to under local and federal law.
There are also changes to reporting and recordkeeping requirements. Employers will no longer need to keep a record of close contacts and will no longer have to report information about workplace cases and outbreaks to their local health department. However, in a major outbreak setting, employers must report the outbreak to Cal/OSHA. That being said, employers still need to be aware of their local health department’s requirements.

For more in depth details about the proposed changes, please take a look at Cal/OSHA’s formal proposal document found on the ca.gov website.

AB: Thank you highlighting some of these changes. We will include a link to the proposed permanent rule in the episode notes so listeners can easily access this. Lauren, is there anything employers should do to prepare for these changes?

LS: So, while there appears to be few differences between the current temporary standards and the new proposed permanent standards, it is recommended for businesses to locate and review their COVID-19 Prevention Program to ensure it can be readily updated. The new proposed permanent standards removes the requirement for employers to keep a separate COVID-19 Prevention Program, as long as their Injury and Illness Prevention Program (or IIPP), includes policies and procedures related to COVID-19. So even if you decide to only have an IIPP, it will still need to be updated with the latest COVID information.

[Outro Music]

AB: Rancho Mesa we will keep our clients and listeners up-to-date once the permanent standards are adopted at the December 15th meeting. So Lauren, thank you for joining me in StudioOne™.

LS: Thanks Alyssa!

AB: This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa. Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. For more information, visit us at ranchomesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.