COVID-19: exposure: notification.

Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, authorizes the Division of Occupational Safety and Health to prohibit the performance of an operation or process, or entry into that place of employment when, in its opinion, a place of employment, operation, or process, or any part thereof, exposes workers to the risk of infection with COVID-19, so as to constitute an imminent hazard to employees. Existing law requires that the prohibition be issued in a manner so as not to materially interrupt the performance of critical governmental functions essential to ensuring public health and safety functions or the delivery of electrical power or water. Existing law requires that these provisions not prevent the entry or use, with the division's knowledge and permission, for the sole purpose of eliminating the dangerous conditions. This bill would add the delivery of renewable natural gas to the list of utilities that the division's prohibitions are not allowed to materially interrupt. Under existing law, if an employer or representative of the employer receives a notice of potential exposure to COVID-19, the employer is required to take specified actions within one business day of the notice of potential exposure, including providing written notice to all employees on the premises at the same worksite that they may have been exposed to COVID-19. Existing law requires, if an employer or the employer's representative is notified of enough COVID-19 cases to meet the definition of an outbreak, the employer, with the exception of a health facility, to notify the local public health agency within 48 hours, as provided. Existing law also requires the State Department of Public Health to make workplace industry information received from local public health departments pursuant to these provisions available on its internet website in a manner that allows the public to track the number and frequency of COVID-19 outbreaks and the number of COVID-19 cases and outbreaks by industry reported by any workplace. This bill, among other things, would require the employer, when giving notice to the local public health agency of a COVID-19 outbreak, to give that notice within 48 hours or one business day, whichever is later. The bill would expand the employers exempt from the COVID-19 outbreak reporting requirement to various licensed entities, including, but not limited to, community clinics, adult day health centers, community care facilities, and child day care facilities. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2023. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.