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COVID Legislation in The Final Weeks

By Dillon Gibbons posted 08-17-2020 04:13 AM

  

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic the Governor and the State Legislature have been determined to address the issue of employees becoming ill and the roll of employers in providing safe work environments and access to care. As the August 31 legislative deadline to pass bills in 2020 quickly approaches, there are several key bills addressing these issues that have yet to be finalized and continue to be amended.

SB 1159 (Hill) is a bill related to workers’ compensation. The bill currently has three different sections. The first section codifies Governor Newsom’s executive order (N-61-20) which created a rebuttable presumption whereby any employee that tested positive for COVID-19 or were diagnosed with COVID-19 and confirmed by a positive test within 14 days of performing a labor or service at a place of work outside their home at the direction of their employer after the stay at home order was issued on March 19, 2020 and prior to July 6, that the illness was a result of their work outside their home and would be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. The second section of SB 1159, as currently drafted, would create a rebuttable presumption for first responders (police, fire and healthcare workers), whereby if they become ill with COVID after working outside their homes between now and July 1, 2024, that the illness is presumed to have been contracted at work and therefore would be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. The third section of the bill is the section of bill that is still the most up in the air on what it will do. The bill was recently amended to say, in part, that “[i]t is the intent of the Legislature to develop policies and procedures to create a disputable workers’ compensation presumption for employees who are diagnosed with COVID-19 as a part of an outbreak at a specific place of employment.” The legislature plans to amend this section of the bill by August 31 to create cluster-based presumption that triggers on a presumption based on an outbreak at a specific workplace.

AB 685 (Reyes)
is a bill that will place numerous requirements on employers regarding notifying employees and various state agencies about employees that become ill with or have been exposed to COVID-19. This bill, like SB 1159, continues to be a work-in-progress and is expected to be amended several times before the August 31 legislative deadline. As currently drafted, the bill would require that, if an employee is exposed to COVID-19, an employer must take all of the following actions within 24 hours that the employer knew or reasonably should have known of exposure to the employee: 

  • Provide a notice to all employees at the worksite where the exposure occurred that they may have been exposed to COVID-19. This notification shall be, at a minimum, in writing in both English and the language understood by the majority of the employees. Employers shall also make every reasonable effort necessary to notify workers verbally.
  • Notify the employee’s union, if any.
  • Notify all employees and the union, if any, of options for exposed employees including COVID-19-related leave, company sick leave, state-mandated leave, supplemental sick leave, or negotiated leave provisions.
  • Notify all employees and the union, if any, on the cleaning and disinfecting plan that the employer plans to implement prior to resuming work.
  • Notify the Division of Occupational Safety and Health of the number of employees by occupation with a COVID-19 positive test, diagnosis, order to quarantine, or death that could be COVID-19 related.
  • Notify the California Department of Public Health and the appropriate local public health agency of the number of employees by occupation with a COVID-19 positive test, diagnosis, order to quarantine, or death that could be COVID-19 related.


The author of AB 685 has acknowledged that a number of the provisions of the bill are unworkable or unreasonable as they are currently drafted, but is determined to amend and pass a bill that will place new notification requirements on employers to ensure workers are aware of what is happening at their place of employment and what their options are related to COVID-19.

The most up to date information regarding SB 1159 and AB 685 amendments will be sent out through CSDA’s Advocacy News Community. If you haven’t already signed up to receive those email updates, at a frequency of your choosing, you can do so to receive the latest updates from inside the Capitol.


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