THE WHIPSAW OF CAL/OSHA COVID REGULATIONS
ATTORNEY WARD HEINRICHS ON BIG BLEND RADIO: Watch / listen here in the YouTube player or download the podcast on Podbean or SoundCloud.
Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, issued an executive order which eliminated the California Covid mandates. It became effective on June 15, 2021. Now, businesses will have no capacity limits or physical distancing requirements for its patrons. Fully vaccinated people will not need to wear masks, except in the following places where everyone must still don masks: public transportation, hospitals, long term care facilities, inside at public schools and childcare, prisons, and homeless shelters. Unvaccinated people will still need to wear masks in all indoor settings. No one will be required to physical distance anymore.
So far, so good, right?
Unfortunately, Cal/OSHA did not want to keep up with Governor Gavin Newsome’s more liberal rules. In contrast, it wanted to keep the California workplace restricted to a greater degree than the rest of California.
On June 3, Cal/OSHA proposed new Covid restrictions for California workers. First, businesses would not need to require physical distancing so long as they provided N95 masks to unvaccinated employees, but it did not require unvaccinated workers to wear the N95 masks. Second, unless all workers in an indoor area were vaccinated, all workers would need to wear masks. Third, fully vaccinated workers would not need to wear masks outside, but unvaccinated outside workers would be required to wear them or stay six feet from other people.
Are you dizzy yet?
Of course, business groups loudly objected. In response, on June 11, Cal/OSHA took another stab at creating reasonable Covid workplace requirements. In effect now, the new rules eliminate physical distancing, do not require vaccinated workers to wear masks except in special situations, and only require unvaccinated workers to wear masks when indoors or in a vehicle.
Based in San Diego, California the Employment Law Office of Ward Heinrichs represents both employers and employees in almost all areas of labor law. He and his firm litigate cases that have been filed in many different parts of California. Visit www.BestEmploymentAttorneySanDiego.com
