A December 31st statutory deadline is coming in to view for the Cal/OSHA Standards Board to adopt a new standard on workplace violence prevention in general industry, as mandated by 2024’s SB 553. Now the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) has released their latest language on the proposed regulation. Another advisory meeting to discuss the proposed language will be held on October 27th. However, it is unclear if the standard can be adopted by the end of the year to meet the deadline. The standard will require California employers to create a workplace violence prevention plan; identify and evaluate workplace violence hazards; adopt engineering controls such as access controls, weapons detectors, separating “high-risk persons,” video monitoring and alarms; institute work practice controls such as appropriate staffing; establish effective procedures for post-incident response and investigation; maintain a violent incident log; and provide training and recordkeeping.
The latest draft has several changes from a July version, the most significant of which include:
- The definition of “designated representative” has been revised to reference the definition of “written authorization” from the Injury and Illness Prevention Program standard.
- In the definition of “work practice controls,” the example of appropriate staffing levels has been revised to say they should be based on the “identification and evaluation of workplace violence hazards.”
- A section of the rule that referred to “reporting violent incidents and threats without fear of reprisal”, the comment about instances where a direct supervisor has not adequately addressed a report has been stricken. It was replaced with references to another section of the rule that covers effective procedures for accepting, evaluating, and responding to reports of WPV.
- In the prevention plan section regarding soliciting information involved in an incident, the “cause of the incident” has been struck and substituted with “conditions and factors that contributed to the incident.”
The Association is currently reviewing the proposed changes and will be making comments.