In our annual California Legislative Update, we briefly explained that SB 606 expanded the enforcement authority of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (“Cal/OSHA”) in various ways. With the new law’s effective date (January 1, 2022) right around the corner, we are providing a more detailed breakdown on the two new categories of Cal/OSHA violations created by SB 606 and its potential impact on California employers.

Enterprise-wide Violations

SB 606 creates a rebuttable presumption that an employer’s health and safety violation is “enterprise-wide” and has occurred at multiple worksites under the following circumstances:

• The employer has a written policy or procedure that violates Cal/OSHA regulations; or
• Cal/OSHA has evidence of a pattern or practice of the same violation committed at more than one of the employer’s worksites.

In other words, an employer with multiple worksites will have the burden of proving to a Cal/OSHA investigator that its other worksites have different, compliant written policies and procedures when a violation on a worksite is found to have occurred. If the employer is unable to rebut the presumption by proving that its other worksites have a different, compliant written policy or procedure (or different, compliant practice—depending on the alleged violation), Cal/OSHA may issue an enterprise-wide citation requiring enterprise-wide abatement. Citations for enterprise-wide violations have the same penalties as willful or...

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