The Cal/OSHA Standards Board just released its latest round of proposed amendments to Cal/OSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS). If adopted, the new amendments will allow all employees to forgo physical distancing at work regardless of vaccination status. And vaccinated employees will be able to take off their masks, even while indoors. The changes are expected to take effect June 28, but may be implemented sooner.

The proposed amendments represent another dramatic reversal of the workplace rules for California employees, and effectively will relax those rules beyond current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance, which still recommends that unvaccinated persons physically distance both indoors and outdoors.

The Standards Board released the new proposed amendments just two days after the board voted to withdraw other revisions to the ETS that were already pending administrative review. We blogged here and here about how the board reversed course at its June 9 meeting, voting to withdraw amendments to the ETS it had approved just days prior at its June 3 meeting.

Now, the Standards Board will consider and vote on the latest amendments on June 17 – so employers should not take any action just yet. As we have seen, the Standards Board can quickly change its positions on ETS amendments.

Continue Reading Social Distancing? Gone! Masks? No Longer Required! Cal/OSHA Continues to Whipsaw California Employers with Proposed Rule Changes

On June 10, 2021, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued updated guidance on mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in all workplaces. Though employers in all industries have been waiting for months for OSHA’s expected issuance of Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS), OSHA only issued an ETS applicable to healthcare workers, effectively ending the likelihood of COVID-19 emergency standards for other business sectors.

The updated guidance, which largely aligns with current CDC guidance, focuses on encouraging COVID-19 vaccination and protecting unvaccinated and otherwise at-risk workers. The guidance states that except for workplace settings covered by OSHA’s ETS (for healthcare settings) and mask requirements for public transportation, “most employers no longer need to take steps to protect their workers from COVID-19 exposure in any workplace, or well-defined portions of a workplace, where all employees are fully vaccinated. Employers should still take steps to protect unvaccinated or otherwise at-risk workers in their workplaces, or well-defined portions of workplaces.”

Continue Reading OSHA Issues Updated COVID-19 Guidance for All Workplaces

Special thanks to our summer associate Janice Lin for her contributions to this post.

Confused yet by Cal/OSHA’s frequent changes to California’s Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS)? If so, there is a new development that might help clear things up.

Last night (June 9), the Standards Board that established the ETS changed its mind for the third time in less than one week, and withdrew amendments to the ETS that were approved on June 3.  As a result, the existing ETS adopted in November 2020 remains in effect, and requires California-based employees to continue to wear face coverings indoors and physically distance-regardless of vaccination status-at least until June 17.

Continue Reading The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Cal/OSHA Standards Board Reverses Course and Votes to Withdraw ETS Amendments it Approved Last Week

Special thanks to presenters Jeremy Hann (Toronto), Liliana Hernandez-Salgado (Mexico City), Leticia Ribeiro (Sao Paulo – Trench Rossi Watanabe), Maria Cecilia Reyes (Bogota) and Matias Herrero (Buenos Aires).

Our four-part Global Guided Tour for US Multinational Employers webinar series is your passport to ensure that your organization is up to speed on the key labor and employment issues affecting business operations in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa.

During the Americas stop on our tour, moderated by Ben Ho, Baker McKenzie’s in-market presenters discussed the most recent developments and challenges impacting employers and shared legal updates, practical tips and takeaways for companies to action now.

Please click here to view a recording of the webinar highlighting the Americas.

Join us at the upcoming sessions applicable to your organization:

ASIA PACIFIC, Wednesday, June 16, 3pm PT / 6pm ET

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, Wednesday, June 23, 9am PT / 12pm ET

Click here to view the program details, to register and to view recordings of any sessions you may have missed.

Special thanks to guest contributors: Erik Christenson and Melissa Allchin.

Baker McKenzie’s Labor and Employment, Global Immigration and Mobility, and Tax lawyers review the wide variety of legal issues for employers to consider regarding a temporary or permanent remote work opportunity, and provide tips on how employers can offer employees flexibility while remaining compliant with employment, immigration and tax requirements.

Click here to watch the video.

 

In April, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a statewide right-to-recall law — S.B. 93 — affecting certain employers. One of the key provisions of the new law, which has not been subject to much discussion, is how it affects corporate transactions.

In this article, we discuss how this new statute that could present challenges for deals, as well as a few older laws that never fail to complicate things when doing deals in the Golden State.

Click here to continue reading this Article.

This article was originally published in Law360.

As we previously reported here, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted last week to amend Cal/OSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) so that new mask and physical distance rules will apply in California workplaces effective June 15, 2021.  Now, less than four days later, the Standards Board has called a special board meeting for June 9 to consider “new information from the California Department of Public Health on pending guidance regarding COVID-19 Prevention, and take action if appropriate.” The Standards Board will hold this special meeting in advance of its regularly-scheduled Standards Board meeting on June 17.  Employers should watch this new twist in the Cal/OSHA ETS saga closely.

Continue Reading NSFW: There Is Yet Another Twist in the Continuing Saga of Cal/OSHA’s Mask and Distance Mandates for California Workplaces

Special thanks to presenters Mirjam de Blecourt (Amsterdam), Nadege Dallais (Paris), Fermin Guardiola (Madrid), Stephen Ratcliffe (London) and Bernhard Trappehl (Munich).

Our four-part Global Guided Tour for US Multinational Employers webinar series is your passport to ensure that your organization is up to speed on the key labor and employment issues affecting business operations in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa.

During the European stop on our tour, moderated by Susan Eandi, Baker McKenzie’s in-market presenters discussed the most recent developments and challenges impacting employers and shared legal updates, practical tips and takeaways for companies to action now.

Please click here to view a recording of the webinar highlighting Europe.

Join us at the upcoming sessions applicable to your organization:

THE AMERICAS, Wednesday, June 9, 9am PT / 12pm ET

ASIA PACIFIC, Wednesday, June 16, 3pm PT / 6pm ET

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, Wednesday, June 23, 9am PT / 12pm ET

Click here to view the program details and to register.

Mark Twain never actually said “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”  But had he sat in on yesterday’s (June 3, 2021) Cal/OSHA Standards Board meeting, he might have said something similar about the proposed amendments to Cal/OSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (“ETS”).

And no one would blame him because, less than an hour after voting to reject the proposed amendments to the ETS, Cal/OSHA’s Standards Board completely changed course by voting unanimously to approve the amendments. The amended ETS, which will apply to most California employers and workplaces, is expected to take effect June 15.

What does this mean for California employers?

In summary, the amendments will require employees who work indoors to continue wearing face coverings indefinitely, except in certain limited circumstances, but also will allow employers to relax physical distancing requirements after confirming which employees are fully vaccinated and providing unvaccinated employees with respirators for their voluntary use.

Continue Reading Cal/OSHA Board Votes to Approve Amendments to COVID-19 ETS Almost Immediately After Voting To Reject Them

Apparently Cal/OSHA is not yet ready for California workplaces to do away with masks and social distancing, despite the recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) and California state guidance allowing fully vaccinated persons to forgo masks and distancing indoors. On May 28, 2021, Cal/OSHA’s Standards Board – a seven member body appointed by the Governor that is responsible for adopting “reasonable and enforceable standards” for the agency – published proposed amendments to the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) currently applicable to most worksites. Though many thought Cal/OSHA would fall in line with the California state guidance saying that vaccinated employees do not need not to wear masks or physically separate indoors as of June 15 (and leaving it up to employers to figure out how to determine who is vaccinated and who is not), Cal/OSHA appears to be leaning in a different direction.

Face coverings required indefinitely for indoor worksites

If the Standards Board approves the proposed amendments to the ETS at its upcoming June 3 meeting, Cal/OSHA will continue to require face coverings for all indoor worksites, with no end date specified. Employers will have to provide and “ensure” employees wear face coverings indoors, unless all persons “in a room” are fully vaccinated and do not have COVID-19 symptoms. In that case, the employees in that room don’t have to wear face coverings.

Otherwise, with only relatively minor exceptions for employees who cannot wear face coverings due to medical or mental health conditions or disabilities, or for tasks that cannot be performed while wearing a face covering, face coverings will be required indoors without regard to vaccination status.

For outdoor worksites, employees must wear face coverings if they are within six feet of other persons unless they are fully vaccinated and do not have COVID-19 symptoms (of course, under the ETS, employers should keep any employees who have COVID-19 symptoms away from the work place in any event).

Continue Reading Cal/OSHA Signals That It Intends to Require Masks and Physical Distancing Throughout the Summer — In Stark Contrast to California’s Targeted Reopening Date of June 15