Late changes to a proposed final rule by California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) updating first-aid kit requirements for general industry and construction firms are drawing substantial pushback from employer representatives, who argue that companies now face extremely costly and onerous reviews and upgrades of all their kits.
November 15, 2026
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials are providing more explanation for their insistence that “exclusion pay” be omitted from the agency’s long-term COVID-19 worker-safety standard -- in part by telling Inside OSHA that adding it would unacceptably delay adoption of the rule -- amid a fiery backlash from unions and members of the agency’s standards board.
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California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is demanding that agency staff add “exclusion pay” requirements into a pending final long-term COVID-19 worker-protection standard, further escalating the controversy over the decision by top officials in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) administration to cut those mandates over unions’ objection.
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California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) has released its potential final COVID-19 worker-protection rules, including revisions to the prior draft’s controversial definition of “close contact” but maintaining the removal of mandatory “exclusion pay” for employees -- a move already drawing fire from labor unions that urged officials to reinstate the provision.
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California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials are advancing stringent new lead-exposure safety rules for the construction and general industry sectors, including a dramatically stricter exposure “action level” that triggers a suite of required actions by employers to protect workers, just as federal OSHA is eyeing the state rule as a possible model, sources say.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed legislation to strengthen California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) worker-safety standards for heat and wildfire smoke, despite strong opposition by a coalition of employer and industry groups that argued the bill improperly sidesteps the normal rulemaking process.
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California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) has issued a new guidance setting out requirements for employers to protect workers from the monkeypox virus (MPV) under the agency’s existing Aerosol Transmissible Diseases (ATD) standard, setting out varying requirements for three different types of employers.
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Officials in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) administration are insisting that California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) pending final COVID-19 standard not require employers to provide “exclusion pay” to employees who cannot work due to infections, even though the chairman and at least two other members of the agency’s standards board support such a revision, according to sources.
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Employers’ attorneys and labor groups are offer contrasting legal and other strong objections to California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) proposed long-term worker safety standards for COVID-19, setting up an imminent debate for the agency’s standards board on what changes -- if any -- to adopt in a final rule.
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California construction industry representatives are attacking an informal proposal by California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) to adopt federal fall-protection safety standards for residential frame construction that the employers argue are less protective than the state’s existing policy, and are seeking a meeting with federal OSHA, Cal/OSHA, labor and other stakeholders.
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