California Employers Must Notify Workers of Covid-19 Exposure

California will soon require employers to notify workers if an employee tests positive for Covid-19.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Thursday signed a bill (A.B. 685) mandating that notice and also allowing the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) to shut down a work site if the coronavirus poses an “imminent hazard” through Jan. 1, 2023. The law doesn’t go into effect until Jan. 1, 2021.

“The population of essential workers that are most at risk for exposure to Covid-19 are those who can least afford to get sick,” Assemblymember Eloise Gomez Reyes (D), the bill’s author, said during a press teleconference.

Under the new law, which passed the legislature Aug. 30, employers must notify employees of potential exposure to the virus within one business day. Employers who violate the law would be subject to a civil penalty, although the amount is not specified in the bill language. The state’s Department of Public Health would disclose the outbreaks on its website.

Cal/OSHA issued guidance Thursday to help employers comply with the new law.

The law comes after at least eight workers at a Foster Farms meatpacking facility died from Covid-19. Nearly 400 workers at the Livingston, Calif., facility tested positive for the virus, making it one of the worst Covid-19 workplace outbreaks in the country.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Western States Council backs the law, and said in a statement that the measure will help workers protect themselves and their families.

“Companies are using threats to keep workers silent about Covid-19 outbreaks and that puts us all at risk,” said Amber Baur, executive director of the UFCW Western States Council.

The California Chamber of Commerce opposed the bill and urged Newsom to veto it. The bill’s language was too vague, particularly in how it defines who must receive notice, wrote Chamber lobbyist Robert Moutrie in a letter to state senators last month.

The time it takes for the Department of Public Health to disclose an outbreak could create bad publicity for a company weeks after the work site has been sanitized and the Covid-19 transmission risk has been diminished, Moutrie added.

The legislation “will expose even good employers to substantial fines and Cal/OSHA enforcement,” he said in the letter.