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Expanded Cal/OSHA Reporting<br />
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE NEW YEAR<br />
By AMY WOLFE | MPPA, CFRE, President and CEO AgSafe, Contributing Writer<br />
THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE<br />
session ended as most do, amongst<br />
a flurry of activity and last-minute<br />
wrangling to ensure bills reached the<br />
governor’s desk. In the pile, since signed<br />
by Governor Newsom, were Assembly<br />
Bills (AB) 1804 and 1805, which meaningfully<br />
modify key definitions associated<br />
with worker illness, injury and exposure.<br />
As a result of those changes, employers<br />
can expect an increase in the number of<br />
workplace incidents that now must be<br />
reported to Cal/OSHA (Occupational<br />
Safety and Health). It’s important to<br />
understand what’s different and how<br />
this will impact your operation in the<br />
new year.<br />
Key Definition Changes<br />
While modifications to how something<br />
is defined may not sound like a big<br />
change, in this case, a few words removed<br />
and added will have a potentially meaningful<br />
impact for employers. AB 1805<br />
modified California Labor Code Section<br />
6302(h) defining “serious injury or illness”<br />
by removing the caveat that incidents<br />
requiring hospitalization in excess of 24<br />
hours and including now any inpatient<br />
hospitalization, other than medical observation<br />
or diagnostic testing.<br />
In addition, the definition includes<br />
if an employee suffers an amputation,<br />
the loss of an eye or serious degree of<br />
permanent disfigurement. Amputation<br />
and eye loss are additions to this section.<br />
The exemption of injury, illness or death<br />
caused by an accident on a public street<br />
was expanded to include or on a highway,<br />
unless the accident occurred in a construction<br />
zone.<br />
The second phrase changed under AB<br />
1805 is “serious exposure,” which refers<br />
to any exposure of an employee to a<br />
hazardous substance when the exposure<br />
occurs as a result of an incident, accident,<br />
emergency, or exposure over time and is<br />
in a degree or amount sufficient to create<br />
a realistic possibility that death or serious<br />
physical harm in the future could result<br />
Continued on Page 74<br />
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72<br />
West Coast Nut <strong>November</strong> <strong>2019</strong>
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