California’s Workplace Violence Prevention Standards Are Now In Effect

California’s new workplace violence prevention standards took effect on July 1, 2024.

As a result, California employers have a number of new legal obligations, including developing and implementing a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (“Plan”); training employees on the Plan; identifying, evaluating and correcting workplace violence hazards; and various recordkeeping requirements.

The law covers all employers in California, with the exception of:

• Health care workers covered by Cal/OSHA’s Workplace Violence Prevention in Health Care standard;
• The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation;
• Employees working remotely from a location of their choice that is not under the control of the employer;
• Employers with fewer than 10 employees whose workplace is not accessible to the public; and
• Law enforcement agencies.

The law also does not apply to:

• Employees working remotely if the remote work location is not under the control of the employer
• Employers if both apply: (1) there will never be 10 or more employees working at the worksite at any given time, and (2) if the business is not open to the public.

Plan Requirements:

Employers are required to establish, implement and maintain an effective written Plan, either as a standalone document or as part of their injury and illness prevention program. The Plan must be a comprehensive written document, tailored to the specific worksite, and must include information addressing several topics. For a list of all required topics, click here: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/dosh_publications/WPV-General-Industry-for-employers-fs.pdf  (refer to “Creating a workplace violence prevention plan”).

Each plan must be uniquely tailored to the specific conditions of employers’ work sites and operations. The plan must be available and easily accessible to employees, authorized employee representatives, and representatives of Cal/OSHA at all times. Employers must review the plan at least annually, when a deficiency is observed or apparent, and after a workplace violence incident has occurred.

Training Requirements:

Employers are required to provide effective training to employees with training materials appropriate and content and vocabulary to the educational level, literacy and language of the employees. Training must be provided when the plan is first established and annually thereafter, and it must cover several topics. For a list of all required topics, click here: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/dosh_publications/WPV-General-Industry-for-employers-fs.pdf  (refer to “Training employees on workplace violence”).

Employers must provide additional training when a new or previously unrecognized workplace violence hazard has been identified and when changes are made to the plan. That additional training may be limited to the new hazard and/or changes to the plan.

The law also requires employers to document their workplace violence prevention training, including training dates, contents or a summary of the training sessions, names and qualifications of persons conducting the training, and names and job titles of all persons attending the training sessions.

Identifying Workplace Violence Hazards:

Every employer must perform an initial assessment to identify and evaluate workplace violence hazards which have been shown to, or that may contribute to the risk of violence in the workplace. According to Cal/OSHA, potential factors that could exist in workplaces that may increase the risk of workplace violence include, but are not limited to: the presence and exchange of money; employees working alone, or at night or in the early morning hours; the presence of other valuables on the property such as jewelry, electronics, etc.; and the presence of employees who have exhibited belligerent, intimidating, or threatening behavior to others.

Employers must conduct inspections when the plan is first established, after each workplace violence incident, and whenever the employer is made aware of a new or previously unrecognized hazard.

When hazards are identified, either through inspection or employee identification, employers must evaluate them, take corrective actions and keep all related records.

Responding to Workplace Violence Incidents:

If a workplace violence incident occurs, employers must follow emergency procedures established in their plan, such as alerting employees to the emergency, following evacuation procedures, sheltering in place, and contacting law enforcement.

After the emergency is resolved, employers must investigate the incident this could include, for example, interviewing involved parties such as employees, witnesses, law enforcement and security personnel; Reviewing security logs and camera footage, any; And gathering any relevant information. Employers must determine the likely cause of the incident, as well as take corrective action to mitigate the hazard and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

After the investigation, employers must create a violent incident log based on information gathered. The law requires the log to contain detailed information about the incident.

For a list of all required information that must be in the log, click here: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/dosh_publications/WPV-General-Industry-for-employers-fs.pdf (refer to “Violent incident log requirements”).

Employers must omit from the log information that allows identification of any person involved in the incident, such as their name, phone number, address or other personal identifying information.

Required documentation:

In addition to the written plan, employers must create and maintain various documents under the law, including the workplace violence prevention training records and violent incident logs mentioned above.

Employers must also keep records of workplace violence incident investigations and workplace violence hazard identification, evaluation and correction. Employers should maintain these records for five years, And must make them available to Cal OSHA upon request. With the exception of incident investigation records, employers also must make these records available to employees upon request.

While this law took effect on July 1, 2024, don’t fret if you have not yet enacted a Plan or training program yet. Cal/OSHA will almost certainly provide a grace period before enforcing this new law while employers attempt to comply with its complex requirements. I have been advising clients to take their time to ensure they get this done right, rather than rushing to get this done by the July 1st deadline.