As Cal/OSHA has voted to continue its COVID-mitigation regulation for two more years, it will mean new – but also what’s been described as more feasible requirements – on outbreak thresholds and record-keeping.
While the regulation’s identification, testing, and exclusion procedures largely remain the same, the close contacts definition now spreads a wider net, Robert Moutrie, policy advocate with the California Chamber of Commerce, explained in a recent blog post.
Because the California Department of Public Health earlier this year changed the definition of a “close contact” to incorporate the physical size of the workplace – whether higher or lower than 400,000 cubic feet per floor – it’s incumbent on employers to adjust their protocols accordingly.
“So though the word ‘close contact’ remains the yardstick of the regulation, employers should keep in mind that this word will no longer mean the well-known six-foot/fifteen-minutes standard of prior years,” Moutrie said.
The new regulation will begin in January and last through December 2024. The Cal/OSHA Standards Board voted 6-1 to adopt the measure on Dec. 15, and the Office of Administrative Law must still approve the text.
“This is important for California employers to understand because it means that the present text may technically remain in effect until as late as mid-January,” Moutrie said.
Under the new text, outbreak protocols could potentially be shortened.
“Whereas outbreak protocols previously had to continue until an employer had a two-week period with zero cases in the exposed group (regardless of whether that was caused by a workplace exposure), the new text will allow outbreaks to end so long as one or less cases occur in a two-week period,” Moutrie said. “This change was one that CalChamber had proposed and means that the outbreak trigger (three cases or more in an exposed group) is now more in line with the outbreak exit threshold (one or fewer cases).”
The new regulation doesn’t include exclusion pay, coinciding with the law signed Sept. 30 by Gov. Gavin Newsom, which ends supplemental COVID-19 sick leave on Dec. 31.