State Actions

Amid rising illness and deaths, California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board has adopted an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for crystalline silica exposure in “engineered stone fabrication shops,” rejecting calls by industry representatives to consider amendments that would ease some of the rule’s stringent new worker-safety requirements.

The head of California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is touting a new staff recruitment initiative by an outside firm as a fresh effort by the agency to help fill the estimated 35 percent of positions at the agency that are considered vacant, while acknowledging that the lack of employees is hurting several Cal/OSHA programs -- including enforcement of worker-safety rules.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) staff are developing stakeholder reports that will aim to justify their pending proposal to strengthen worker-safety rules for lead exposure in the construction and general industry sectors, including a claim that the tighter requirements would avoid 31 deaths and hundreds of job-related illnesses over 10 years.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is proposing to exempt short-term “incidental” exposures from its proposed first-time employee-safety rules for heat illness prevention at indoor worksites, but employer groups that sought the change are now calling on the state to expand it further, saying the current version is highly limited and fails to address their concerns.

Employer attorneys are urging California companies to begin crafting documents and developing training procedures to comply with the state’s newly enacted law requiring general industry employers to implement workplace violence-prevention plans -- measures that must be fully in place by next summer.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials are defending their proposal to strengthen worker-safety rules for lead exposure in the construction and general industry sectors from ongoing attacks by employer and industry groups, touting the science behind stringent new health-risk thresholds and arguing that industry has overstated their likely compliance costs.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has vetoed a bill that would have required household domestic service employers to comply with all California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) rules beginning in 2025, citing potentially exorbitant costs and the general unfairness of subjecting households and families to regulations intended for conventional businesses.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials have released a revised emergency temporary standard (ETS) for crystalline silica exposure in “engineered stone fabrication shops,” aiming to approve the rule in December amid what they say is a “crisis” in which a growing number of workers are developing advanced silicosis, a serious lung disease.

The California Legislature has passed a scaled-back bill requiring employers to implement workplace violence-prevention plans on a faster timeline than a pending rule at California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) would impose, and sources say Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is expected to sign it into law before an Oct. 14 deadline.

A California state lawmaker is further scaling back his bill requiring employers to implement workplace violence-prevention plans in response to continued strong opposition from industry and employer groups, bringing its requirements closer to a pending draft regulatory proposal by California OSHA (Cal/OSHA), sources say.