This is a change from the June 3 Revisions, which required employers to provide respirators to all unvaccinated workers, regardless of an employee request. The June 17 Revisions also direct that, upon request, employers must provide respirators, such as N95 masks, for voluntary use to unvaccinated employees who are working indoors or in vehicles with more than one person.
“For all employees who are not fully vaccinated, employers shall provide face coverings and ensure they are worn when indoors or in vehicles.”.Those June 17 Revisions 5 generally align with the CDPH Guidance: The Board will consider amendments to the current ETS on June 17 (as proposed, the “June 17 Revisions”). Thus-notwithstanding the relaxed CDPH Guidance that goes into effect June 15 and its now withdrawn June 9 guidance liberalizing the November 2020 rules-Cal/OSHA still requires in most circumstances that “mployers shall provide face coverings and ensure they are worn by employees over the nose and mouth when indoors, when outdoors and less than six feet away from another person.” 3īased on this updated CDPH Guidance, and in response to a letter from CDPH, 4 the Board held a special meeting on June 9, during which it voted to withdraw the June 3 Revisions. 2 Hence, Cal/OSHA’s June 3 Revisions requiring employees to wear masks indoors unless all employees were vaccinated did not align either with CDPH’s June 9 guidance or with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (“CDC”) earlier May 28 guidance for fully vaccinated individuals. On June 9, however, the California Department of Public Health (“CDPH”) released new face covering guidance dispensing with the indoor masking requirement for fully vaccinated individuals beginning June 15, with a few exceptions. The June 3 Revisions were set to go into effect no later than June 15. On June 3, the Board voted to approve amendments to Cal/OSHA’s current ETS (“June 3 Revisions”), which would have permitted fully vaccinated employees to forgo face coverings indoors, but only if all other employees in the room were also fully vaccinated and not experiencing COVID‑19 symptoms.
The current Cal/OSHA COVID Emergency Temporary Standards (“ETS”) 1 (adopted November 2020) require employees to wear face coverings indoors at all times, with limited exceptions, such as when an employee is alone in an enclosed room, or when eating or drinking. Unlike the revisions adopted by the Cal/OSHA Board (the “Board”) on June 3, Cal/OSHA’s new proposed rules-which will be voted on Thursday, June 17 and could take effect immediately under an expected order from the Governor-are more aligned with recent federal and California guidance loosening restrictions on employees who are fully vaccinated. In the face of criticism for its recently proposed standards about mask wearing and social distancing, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (“Cal/OSHA”) has now announced revised amendments to its existing workplace safety rules for California employers.
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