Rachel L. Conn, Megan S. Shaked, and Andrea O. Chavez, attorneys in Conn Maciel Carey LLP’s California Practice, were quoted in Inside OSHA’s “Lawyers See Some Benefit In Revised Cal/OSHA Workplace-Violence Rules,” by Curt Barry.
The following is an excerpt from the article:
“One of the more employer-favorable changes to the new draft is that it removes” several situations from the “workplace violence hazards definition,” attorneys with the firm Conn Maciel Carey say in an April 30 commentary.
Those include: hostile work environments; required and excessive overtime; high-crime areas; providing security services; and “working with people with a history of violence,” they continue.
“Employers had argued these terms were too vague to serve as workable compliance standards and could expose employers to unpredictable citation risk,” they add.
The standard is required by a 2023 state law, SB 553, which will replace and expand on first-time rules that took effect on July 1, 2024, per the law. Cal/OSHA’s standards board is required to adopt the revised rules by the end of this year.
According to Conn Maciel Carey attorneys Rachel Conn, Megan Shaked and Andrea Chavez, the new draft “broadens the regulation’s reach beyond places of employment and employer-provided housing to explicitly include employer-provided transportation. Employers operating company shuttles, fleet vehicles, or other transportation arrangements will need to ensure their workplace violence prevention plans address those settings.”
