Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, imposes safety responsibilities on employers and employees, including the requirement that an employer establish, implement, and maintain an effective injury prevention program, and makes specified violations of these provisions a crime. The act is enforced by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health within the Department of Industrial Relations, including the enforcement of standards adopted by the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board. The act requires the standards board to adopt standards developed by the division that require specified types of hospitals to adopt a workplace violence prevention plan as a part of the hospital’s injury and illness prevention plan to protect health care workers and other facility personnel from aggressive and violent behavior, as prescribed (hospital standards).
This bill would require the division, by an unspecified date, to adopt standards that require an employer that is not subject to the hospital standards to adopt a workplace violence prevention plan as a part of the employer’s injury and illness prevention plan to protect employees from aggressive and violent behavior, as prescribed. The bill would require the standards adopted by the division to be consistent with the hospital standards, except as the division determines to be necessary to apply to the employers covered under the new standards.
Because this bill would expand the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.