Occupational safety: workplace violence: restraining orders and workplace violence prevention plan.

Existing law authorizes any employer, whose employee has suffered unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence from any individual that can reasonably be construed to be carried out or to have been carried out at the workplace, to seek a temporary restraining order and an order after hearing on behalf of the employee and other employees at the workplace, as described. This bill, commencing January 1, 2025, would also authorize a collective bargaining representative of an employee, as described, to seek a temporary restraining order and an order after hearing on behalf of the employee and other employees at the workplace, as described. The bill would require an employer or collective bargaining representative of an employee, before filing such a petition, to provide the employee who has suffered unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence from any individual an opportunity to decline to be named in the temporary restraining order. Under the bill, an employee's request to not be named in the temporary restraining order would not prohibit an employer or collective bargaining representative from seeking a temporary restraining order on behalf of other employees at the workplace, and, if appropriate, other employees at other workplaces of the employer. The bill would make various conforming changes. Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, imposes safety responsibilities on employers and employees, including the requirement that an employer establish, implement, and maintain an effective injury prevention program, and makes specified violations of these provisions a crime. The act is enforced by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (division) within the Department of Industrial Relations, including the enforcement of standards adopted by the Occupational Safety and Health Standards board (standards board) . This bill would require an employer, as specified, to also establish, implement, and maintain, at all times in all work areas, an effective workplace violence prevention plan containing specified information. The bill would require the employer to record information in a violent incident log for every workplace violence incident, as specified. The bill would require the employer to provide effective training to employees on the workplace violence prevention plan, among other things, and provide additional training when a new or previously unrecognized workplace violence hazard has been identified and when changes are made to the plan. The bill would require records of workplace violence hazard identification, evaluation, and correction and training records to be created and maintained, and violent incident logs and workplace incident investigation records to be maintained, as specified. The bill would require certain records to be made available to the division, employees, and employee representatives, as specified. The bill would make these requirements operative on and after July 1, 2024. Existing law requires the division to issue, with reasonable promptness, a citation to an employer if, upon inspection or investigation, the division believes the employer has violated any standard, rule, order, or regulation established pursuant to specified provisions of law. Existing law specifies procedures for issuance of the citation and provides there is a rebuttable presumption that a violation is enterprise-wide if an employer has multiple worksites and the division has evidence of a pattern or practice of the same violation or violations committed by the employer involving more than one of their worksites, or if the employer has a written policy or procedure that violates specified provisions of law, except as provided. Existing law also authorizes the division to impose certain civil penalties pursuant to specified law, including when any employer violates any occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, depending on whether the violation is serious. This bill would require the division to enforce the workplace violence prevention plan and related requirements by issuance of a citation and a notice of civil penalty, as specified. The bill would authorize the appeal of a citation and penalty, as specified. The bill would require the division to propose, no later than December 1, 2025, and the standards board to adopt, no later than December 31, 2026, standards regarding the plan required by the bill, as specified. This bill would also require every employer to include the workplace violence prevention plan as part of their effective injury prevention program, a violation of which is a misdemeanor in specified circumstances. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 527.8 of the Code of Civil Procedure added by SB 428 to be operative only if this bill and SB 428 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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.