State Actions

California lawmakers have approved a statewide audit of California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) inspection and enforcement processes, amid criticism that the “understaffed” agency is failing to adequately protect agriculture and other workers from on-the-job dangers and fails to properly cite and collect fines from violators.

Employer attorneys are stepping up efforts to prepare companies for the July 1 compliance deadline of California’s landmark, multi-layered workplace violence-prevention rules, while more broadly warning that other states will likely adopt similar standards based on the new policy.

California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would prohibit, beginning July 1, 2026, the sale and use of firefighter personal protective equipment (PPE) containing intentionally added PFAS, and that would require state regulators to align worker-safety rules with a future national standard for PFAS-free firefighting gear.

California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would require schools to exclude teachers and other employees with COVID-19 from the workplace with pay for a set period of time, amid opposition from state health officials who argue that such mandates should be based on their frequently updated pandemic guidance rather than rigid statutory mandates.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) plans to exempt local and state correctional facilities from its sweeping new indoor heat worker-safety rules and resubmit the regulatory package to state administrators for approval, after state finance officials warned the agency they plan to reject the prior version over its economic impacts.

A bill advancing in the California Legislature would require California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) to amend its hospital violence-prevention rules to require that facilities maintain metal detectors at certain entrances, and implement a number of supporting security measures.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials say they are still “committed” to strong implementation of existing indoor heat protections and ongoing efforts to bolster them, despite the likely forthcoming rejection by state administrators of a sweeping set of more stringent rules adopted by the agency’s standards board last month at a chaotic meeting.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) administration appears to be blocking implementation of California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) landmark indoor heat worker-safety rules that were previously expected to take effect July 1, citing new projections of high compliance costs, even after the agency’s standards board approved the rules at a chaotic March 21 meeting.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials have released a model for firms to draft workplace violence-prevention plans required by a controversial 2023 state law that sought to broaden the state’s long-standing violence protections for healthcare workers to “general industry,” as employer groups expect a scramble to put the plans in place by a July 1 deadline.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is facing both a stakeholder petition and pending legislation seeking what would be a pioneering rule mandating that workplace first-aid kits include the nasal spray naloxone hydrochloride -- a medication to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses -- but the calls are facing early employer objections over costs and feasibility.