School employees: COVID-19 cases: protections.

Existing law grants the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which is within the Department of Industrial Relations, jurisdiction over all employment and places of employment, with the power necessary to enforce and administer all occupational health and safety laws and standards. The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, an independent entity within the department, has the exclusive authority to adopt occupational safety and health standards within the state. Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, requires employers to comply with certain standards ensuring healthy and safe working conditions, as specified, and charges the division with enforcement of the act. Other existing law relating to occupational safety imposes special provisions on certain industries and charges the division with enforcement of these provisions. This bill would require an employer, defined to be a school district, county office of education, or charter school, to ensure that COVID-19 cases, defined as specified school employees, who have a positive COVID-19 test, are excluded from the workplace until prescribed return-to-work requirements are met. To the extent administering these provisions imposes additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill, with specified exceptions, would require an employer to continue and maintain an excluded school employee's earnings, wages, seniority, and all other employee rights and benefits, including the employee's right to their former job status, as if the employee had not been excluded from the workplace, as prescribed. The bill would require the standards board, by February 3, 2025, to adopt a standard that extends these protections to any occupational infectious disease covered by any permanent infectious disease standard adopted to succeed an existing standard for COVID-19 prevention for those school employees. The bill would require the division to enforce the bill by the issuance of a citation alleging a violation and a notice of civil penalty, as specified. The bill would authorize any person who receives a citation and penalty to appeal the citation and penalty to the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.