On August 28, 2023, California State Senator Dave Cortese (D-15) announced last-minute amendments to Senate Bill (SB) No. 553. SB 553, if enacted, would require virtually every employer in California to adopt comprehensive workplace violence prevention plans, starting on July 1, 2024.

Quick Hits

• On September 1, 2023, SB 553 passed the California State Assembly’s Appropriations Committee.
• SB 553 would establish a workplace violence prevention standard applicable to virtually every employer in California.
• If enacted, the workplace violence prevention requirements set forth in SB 553 would go into effect on July 1, 2024.

Previous drafts of SB 553 were substantially similar to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s (Cal/OSHA) workplace violence regulations, which are currently applicable only to healthcare settings. The new last-minute amendments to SB 553 more closely resemble Cal/OSHA’s draft regulations on workplace violence prevention. For the past six years, Cal/OSHA has been developing a proposed workplace violence prevention standard known as the Workplace Violence Prevention in General Industry Draft.

Under the new amendments, SB 553’s workplace violence prevention requirements would go into effect on July 1, 2024. SB 553 also would require Cal/OSHA to adopt its own general industry workplace violence regulation by December 31, 2026. Essentially, SB 553 is a placeholder until Cal/OSHA passes its own standard, which would replace SB 553’s...

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