With the threat of violence looming over workplaces more than ever, the California legislature has passed a law likely to garner interest from other states looking to protect workers.
California Bill 553, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom last fall, requires all employers with more than 10 workers to enact workplace violence prevention plans by July 1. The new law has a long list of provisions to be met in planning, training and governance.
The plan itself must include:
● Clearly identified names or job titles of the individuals responsible for implementing the plan.
● Be specific to the hazards and corrective measures for each work area and operation.
● Procedures to identify and evaluate workplace violence hazards (risk assessment) and implement necessary corrective actions.
● Details on a supporting training program
● Methods to ensure active engagement and input from employees for the plan, as well as clearly articulated roles and responsibilities for reporting, investigation and recording of all qualifying incidents.
● Procedures for the organisation to accept and respond to reports of workplace violence.
● Clearly articulated protocols for employees to report incidents of workplace violence, threats, and/or other concerns related to workplace violence.
● Response procedures to workplace violence emergencies addressing the alert notification process, evacuation or sheltering plans, and how to obtain internal and external support.
Additionally, employers must record information in a violent-incident log for every workplace violence incident, and records pertaining to identification and correction of violence hazards must be kept for 5 years.
Training records must be maintained for at least one year and are required to include dates, a summary of content, names and qualifications of the trainers and names and job titles of all attendees.
If an employer fails to adhere to and/or properly implement the requirements, they may face a range of fines per violation. Additionally, companies can incur multiple fines per incident, depending on the range of violations.
What spurred the law was the mass shooting incident in 2021 that occurred at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority rail yard in San Jose, Calif. A 57-year-old VTA employee, Sam J. Cassidy, shot and killed nine VTA employees before taking his own life
