Occupational safety and health: procedures.

Existing law establishes the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the Department of Industrial Relations to enforce employment safety laws. Existing law authorizes the division to conduct hearings, inspections, and investigations regarding alleged violations of employment safety laws and to issue citations to employers. Existing law establishes the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board in the department and prescribes procedures for the appeals board to hear and decide employer appeals of the division's enforcement actions. Existing law also establishes the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board in the department and authorizes the standards board to adopt, amend, or repeal occupational safety and health standards and orders, and to grant temporary or permanent variances from a standard or order upon request from an employer, and prescribes procedures for the standards board to conduct a hearing on a request for a permanent variance, as specified. This bill would revise and recast various provisions regarding the investigations and citations issued by the division, the persons or entities who are authorized to participate as parties in an appeal before the appeals board, the procedures that govern the standards board in issuing a temporary variance and in conducting a hearing on a permanent variance, the procedures that govern the appeals board in hearing, deciding, and reconsidering appeals, and procedures that govern the judicial review of the appeals board's decisions. The bill would make other related clarifying and conforming changes. Existing law requires an employer to file a complete report of every occupational injury or occupational illness, as defined, to each employee that results in lost time beyond the date of the injury or illness, or that requires medical treatment beyond first aid, with the department, or if an insured employer, with the insurer. Under existing law, in every case involving a serious injury or illness, or death, an additional report is required to be made immediately by the employer to the division, as specified. Under existing law, an employer is required to be assessed a civil penalty not less than $5,000 for a violation of the requirement to make the additional report to the division. This bill would authorize the division to increase the penalty in a settlement or decrease it to no less than $2,500 under specified conditions, including that the employer has declared, under penalty of perjury, that it made a timely report to its workers' compensation carrier or to a state, county, or local fire or police agency and that it was informed by that entity that the report satisfied the requirement to report to the division. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.