Are You in Compliance?

The last line in California’s new workplace violence prevention law requires that, “Subdivisions (b) to (g), inclusive, shall be operative on and after July 1, 2024”. Therefore, employers must already be in full compliance with each of the elements within those subdivisions of the law. Failure to do so risks your employees’ safety, and regulatory action by Cal/OSHA. 

In this piece, I’ll detail the specific elements of the law that you are required to have operational right now, so that you can be certain that you are in full compliance with the law. 

Keeping your employees safe from workplace violence requires understanding violence, how it happens, and what works to prevent it from happening. And you’ve got to train your employees to recognize the safety hazards they face from the four source types of workplace violence, and to be able to take the appropriate actions they need to do in order to avoid physical harm. 

Take the guesswork out of keeping your employees safe, with my CA Employers Workplace Violence Prevention Training Checklist. I spent 30 years investigating violent incidents in the workplace and in the community. Through my work I learned what works to keep employees safe from violence. And used that knowledge to keep myself safe while working in some pretty unsafe areas.   

Subdivision (b): Who is Covered Under the Law 

Subdivision (b) identifies who is covered under the law. 

Subdivision (b) notes, “except as provided in paragraph (2), this section applies to all employers, employees, places of employment, and employer provided housing.” 

Unless you operate a healthcare facility, which falls under a separate workplace violence prevention law, or operate law enforcement or corrections agencies, you, your employees, and your place of employment is likely covered by the law.  

Subsection (b) exempts only employees who telework from a location of their choice, which is not under the control of the employer. But, those same employees fall under the law any time they meet in person for their work, or come to the workplace. 

And it only exempts places of employment (but not employees) where there are less than 10 employees working at a given time “that are not accessible to the public, if the places are in compliance with Section 3203 of Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations.” (All 3 elements must be met for the place of employment to be exempt. The key determinant being accessible to the public, not the number of employees).

Subdivision (c): Required Elements in Prevention Plan 

Subdivision (c) requires that, “an employer shall establish, implement, and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention plan.” And it identifies all of the required elements that must be in your violence prevention plan. 

Plan requirements include: 

•  The plan shall be in writing, in effect at all times, and in all work areas, and must be specific to the safety hazards and corrective measures for each work area and operation.
•  The plan must identify who is responsible for implementing the plan.
•  Identify effective procedures to obtain the active involvement of employees in developing and implementing the plan through their participation in identifying, evaluating, and correcting workplace violence hazards, in designing and implementing training, and in reporting and investigating workplace violence incidents.
•  Effective procedures to accept and respond to reports of workplace violence and prohibit retaliation against employees who report.
•  Effective procedures to ensure compliance with prevention plan.
•  Effective procedures to communicate with employees about workplace violence incidents including how to report concerns, how those concerns will be investigated, and disciplinary action taken.
•  Effective procedures to respond to actual or potential workplace violence emergencies including how to alert employees to an incident, evacuation and sheltering plans, how to obtain help from staff assigned to incident response.
•  Procedures to develop and provide training.
•  Procedures to identify and evaluate workplace violence hazards.
•  Procedures to correct workplace violence safety hazards.
•  Procedures for post incident response and investigation.
•  Procedures to review the effectiveness of the plan and to revise as needed. 

Subdivision (d): Violent Incident Log Requirements

Subdivision (d) covers the requirement to record information in a violent incident log for every workplace violence incident. Including: 

•  Identifies the sources of information to use when recording a violent incident and the need to shield the identity of those involved.
•  Identifies the required information to include when recording a violent incident, including a detailed description of the incident, the source type for the violence, possible contributing factors, classification of the incident location, the type of incident including attack, threat of force, weapons, or sexual assault.
•  Consequences of the incident, actions taken to protect the employee from further violence.
•  Identity of person completing the log. 

Subdivision (e): Training Requirements 

Subdivision (e) requires employers to provide effective training when the plan is first established, and annually thereafter in:

•  The workplace violence prevention plan, and how employees can help the develop and implement the plan.
•  The definitions and requirements of the prevention law.
•  How to report violence incidents or concerns.
•  Workplace violence hazards specific to employees’ jobs, and the corrective measures implemented for those hazards.
•  How to seek assistance to prevent or respond to violence.
•  Strategies to avoid physical harm from violence.
•  The violent incident log.
•  Training in any new workplace violence hazards that arise, and the corrective measures developed for those newly recognized hazards.

Subdivision (f): Records Retention 

Subdivision (f) identifies the records retention requirements for:

•  Hazard assessment, evaluation and correction.
•  Training records including the qualifications of persons conducting the training.
•  Violent incident log.
•  Workplace violence incident investigation. 

Subdivision (g): Enforcement Requirements, Right of Appeal, and Effective Date 

Subdivision (g) covers the nature of enforcement actions, penalties, the rights to appeal, and the effective dates for employers to comply and for the state to create additional standards.

There’s a lot that employers must do to comply with California’s workplace violence prevention law, send me an email to set up a free consultation to discuss where you are at with complying with your violence prevention program requirements.

Whether it’s a single topic lunch and learn, training in strategies to help your employees avoid physical harm from workplace violence, or assessing the specific safety hazards your employees face and helping remediate those risks, I can help you take the guess work out of keeping your employees safe and complying with California’s new workplace violence prevention law.