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PAGA reform finally on the horizon
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that legislative leadership, in partnership with business and labor groups, reached an agreement on long-needed reforms to the Private Attorneys General Act.
United States | Publication | January 18, 2022
Cal/OSHA has revised its emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19, to take effect on January 14, 2022. What follows is a summary of those changes.
Employers must continue to properly notify employees, employee representatives and any other workers at a worksite of possible COVID-19 exposures within one business day. This section was updated to give employers more clear instructions on how to notify workers who were at the same worksite as the COVID-19 case during the high-risk exposure period. Specifically, employers may provide notice “in the manner the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information,” which may include e-mail or text messages. As before, employers should maintain a copy of this notice for its files.
The definition of “worksite” has been narrowed to exclude locations where someone worked alone, a worker’s personal residence, or “alternative work location chosen by the worker when working remotely.”
The revised ETS imposes additional requirements regarding “face coverings.” For face coverings other than a respirator, surgical mask or a medical procedure mask, the covering must be made of fabrics that “do not let light pass through when held up to a light source [and material] that completely covers the nose and mouth and is secured to the head with ties, ear loops or elastic bands that go behind the head.”
In addition, “a face covering is a solid piece of material without slits, visible hole or punctures, and must fit snugly over the nose, mouth and chin with no large gaps on the outside of the face.”
Employers must ensure that employees who are exempted from wearing a face covering due to a medical or mental health condition or disability and cannot wear a non-restrictive alternative must physically distance at least six feet from others and either be fully vaccinated or tested at least weekly for COVID-19. The testing must be during paid time and at no cost to the employee.
A COVID-19 test may include an FDA-approved over-the-counter (OTC) test, administered in accordance with the authorized instructions, but—as with the Fed OSHA ETS—may not be both self-administered and self-read unless observed by the employer or an authorized telehealth proctor. In FAQs for its vaccine-or-test ETS, Fed OSHA has indicated that employee photographs of the OTC test results also do not satisfy the standard. Until Cal/OSHA issues an FAQ to the contrary, it is prudent to assume that California will follow the lead of Fed OSHA.
In addition:
For those who are not fully vaccinated, the period of time before an employee can return to work after “close contact” has been revised (via FAQs issued on January 6, 2022) to be consistent with current California Department of Public Health guidelines:
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California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that legislative leadership, in partnership with business and labor groups, reached an agreement on long-needed reforms to the Private Attorneys General Act.
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Our healthcare lawyers comment on healthcare providers and MCOs that are beginning to experience the financial impacts of the end of continuous Medicaid enrollment and the reductions associated with the enhanced FMAP.
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