On March 1, 2024, the California Department of Industrial Relations Division of Occupational Safety & Health (Cal/OSHA) published a model Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (WVPP) and additional resources for general industry employers to utilize.  California employers have until July 1, 2024, to get in compliance.  Nearly all California employers are covered by these new requirements.  Exemptions include healthcare facilities (already covered by Cal/OSHA’s Violence Prevention in Health Care standard) and places of employment where fewer than 10 employees are working at any given time that are not accessible to the public.

The following are the four key requirements to the new California law:

• Create a workplace violence prevention plan which the majority of employers in California must establish, implement, and maintain. The plan must:
  • Prohibit employee retaliation.
  • Accept and respond to reports of workplace violence.
  • Provide employee workplace violence training and communication, emergency response, workplace violence hazard assessments.
  • Additional requirements, such as maintaining a Violent Incident Log.
• Maintain Violent Incident Logs to include information on every workplace violence incident, based on employee statements, witness statements, and investigation findings.
• Maintain workplace violence recordkeeping.
• Train employees on workplace violence prevention on an annual basis – utilizing the organization’s actual WVPP.

The Fact Sheet addressing these four requirements can be found here:  https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/dosh_publications/WPV-General-Industry-for-employers-fs.pdf.

The WVPP template can be found here: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dir.ca.gov%2Fdosh%2Fdosh_publications%2FModel-WPV-Plan-General-Industry.docx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK.

The full text of SB 553, including the newly- added Labor Code Section 6401.9 relating to occupational safety. can be found here: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB553.

Should you have any questions or require assistance adapting the WVPP to your Company’s needs, please contact your Hill Farrer attorney or any member of our Labor and Employment department at (213) 620-0460.