For the second time, the standards-setting board for the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (“Cal/OSHA”) has readopted, with revisions, the agency’s COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards (“ETS”). The revised ETS become effective on January 14, 2022, and impose new obligations on nearly all employers in the Golden State.
The ETS originally went into effect in November 2020, and were revised in June 2021. Sheppard Mullin previously wrote about the implementation of the original ETS here and previous revisions to its requirements here.
Many aspects of the ETS remain unchanged in the latest update. The Cal/OSHA ETS continue to apply to all employees not covered by Cal/OSHA’s Aerosol Transmissible Diseases Standard or employees working alone or at home. The ETS still require employers to establish, implement, and maintain a COVID-19 Prevention Program (“CPP”), although that CPP must now be updated to reflect Cal/OSHA’s latest changes. Employers must once again train employees on up-to-date COVID-19-related information, including the employer’s policies and procedures, COVID-19 prevention, and benefits to which employees may be entitled, among other things. And, as they have for the past year plus, the ETS set standards for various COVID-19-related protocols that employers must follow, including, for example, making testing available in certain situations, requiring face coverings for certain employees, excluding...
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