Exempt From the New Workplace Violence Law? Maybe, Maybe Not

“Except as provided in paragraph (2) this section applies to all employers, employees, places of employment, and employer-provided housing.” So declares California’s new workplace violence prevention law.

The use of the word “all” is pretty instructive as to California’s intent behind the law. Protecting as many employees as possible in the state from workplace violence is the point of this law.

It’s also why California explicitly distinguishes between employers, employees, and places of employment.

When it comes to safety from violence, California opted for clarity. And clarity is good.  

But, wait. What about exceptions? Aren’t small business employers exempt? 

In this piece we’ll look at what the law actually says when it comes to exemptions. You might be surprised. 

Employee Exemptions

Under exemptions, the law cites only one specific exemption from the law that applies to employees, and that is for, “employees teleworking from a location of the employee’s choice, which is not under the control of the employer.” 

This makes sense obviously. Though if those employees come into the location that is under the control of the employer, whether as a hybrid employee, or to attend meetings with co-workers or clients, that exemption likely disappears while they are there. In which case you’d still need to provide training to them.

Small Employer Places of Employment Exemption

 The law cites only one exemption that mentions the number of employees, “places of employment where there are less than 10 employees working at the place at any given time and 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.” 

This exception applies to places of employment rather than to employees or employers. And it cites three distinct requirements that each must be met in order for that place of employment to be exempt from the requirements of the new law.

 The first of the three elements, less than 10 employees working at the place is pretty straightforward, but the law then links that requirement to a second requirement, and that the place of employment must not be accessible to the public. 

That literally means no one from the public has the ability to access that place of employment. And not just members of the public who might walk in, but people like customers, clients, patients, consultants, vendors or anyone else who might be invited into the place of employment as a result of the work performed at that place of employment. And that even includes family and friends of employees too since they are members of the public.

And finally, both of those requirements are then linked to one more requirement that must be met for a place of employment to be exempt. And that is only for places who are in compliance with California’s existing law, dating back to 1991, requiring employers to establish, implement, and maintain an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program. 

That law still requires employers with fewer than 10 employees “to communicate to employees orally (instead of in writing) in general safe work practice with specific instructions with respect to hazards unique to the employees’ job assignments”. While still requiring those employers to have “procedures for identifying and evaluating work place hazards including scheduled periodic inspections to identify unsafe conditions and work practices.”

 So whether it’s under the new workplace violence prevention law, or the law dating back to 1991, employers must still conduct safety hazard assessments to ascertain the specific safety threats employees working at that place of employment face, such as those that can occur in parking lots or garages, from a domestic abuser or person outside the place of employment that has a personal relationship to an employee that might target the employee because he knows where she works, or the risk of being a victim of crime from the community surrounding the place of employment, employers still have to train their employees in being safe from those safety hazards.

I’ve put together some incredible resources to help you create and implement your workplace violence prevention plan. My free CA workplace violence prevention checklist. And my step-by-step CA Employers Workplace Violence Prevention Tool Kit. It’s a guidebook, workbook, and video series that takes you step-by-step through creating an effective workplace violence prevention plan as required under California’s new workplace violence prevention plan. 

If you’d like to learn more about implementing your plan and training your employees who work in the community, in recognizing, and avoiding workplace violence safety hazards, as well as in strategies to avoid physical harm from workplace violence, send me an email at [email protected] and we can set up some time to chat about your workplace violence prevention needs.