California’s workplace regulator could soon make its temporary COVID-19 regulation permanent. The Cal/OSHA standards board held a full-day meeting recently to discuss a new proposal for permanent rulemaking.
The California Farm Bureau appreciated that the regulation under discussion would be less prescriptive than the current emergency standard and would sunset after two years, but they raised concerns.
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Housing and transportation requirements have been simplified and exclusion pay for exposed workers has been removed, deferring to lawmakers for that authority, despite pushback from labor groups. Hand washing and sanitation requirements have also been removed. Yet the proposal would raise employer obligations for testing, vaccine verification and ventilation after outbreaks.
The board first adopted an emergency standard last November, extended it in June and is now set to readopt it in December.
