362 | 2023 Cal-Peculiarities ©2023 Seyfarth Shaw LLP www.seyfarth.com 14.13 Workplace Violence Requirements for Health Care Providers California health-care employers, home health and hospice providers, and emergency responders have specific requirements related to the prevention of workplace violence for their employees. They must develop workplace violence prevention plans, train their employees, and keep records related to workplace violence incidents.24 The violence prevention plans must be in writing, must be specific to the hazards and corrective measures for the unit, service, or operation, and must be available to employees at all times.25 These employers must report incidents involving the use of physical force against an employee by a patient (or a person accompanying a patient). This is true where the use of force results in, or has a high likelihood of resulting in, injury, psychological trauma, or stress, or the incident involved the use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon. The regulations also require employers to take immediate corrective action where a hazard was imminent and take measures to protect employees from identified serious workplace violence hazards within seven days of the discovery of the hazard. Additionally, the employers must maintain a “Violent Incident Log.” Certain acute care and special hospitals also must report violent incidents that resulted in an injury, involved the use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon, or present an urgent or emergent threat to the welfare, health or safety within 24 hours and all incidents within 72 hours. 14.14 Electronic Submission of Cal/OSHA Forms Certain California employers must electronically submit annual injury and illness data from Cal/OSHA 300A forms by March 2 of the year after the calendar year covered by the form. This requirement applies to establishments with 250 or more employees, as well as to establishments in designated industries with 20-249 employees.26 Some designated industries include agiruclture, utilities, construction, and manufacturing, among others. 14.15 ValleyFeverTraining—”There’s Fungus Among Us!” Construction employers with employees working at worksites in counties where Valley Fever (a dirt-dwelling microscopic fungus) is highly endemic must provide annual effective awareness training on Valley Fever to all employees, and must provide training before employees begin work reasonably anticipated to cause exposure to substantial dust disturbance.27 14.16 Wildfire Smoke Protection Cal/OSHA’s emergency regulation to protect workers from wildfire smoke went into effect in July 2019. The regulation applies to most outdoor workplaces where the current Air Quality Index (AQI) for airborne particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or smaller (PM2.5) is 151 or greater, and where employers should reasonably anticipate that employees could be exposed to wildfire smoke. However, employers with employees who are exposed to an AQI of 151 or greater for less than one hour during a shift are exempt. Other exemptions apply such as, for example, situations in which employees are in enclosed vehicles in which the air is filtered by a cabin air filter and windows and doors are kept closed. Under the regulation, covered employers must provide training and instruction to employees about wildfire smoke, and reduce worker exposure to wildfire smoke in various ways such as providing filtered air when feasible and respiratory protection.28
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