WCN November 2019

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from the actual hazard created by the
exposure. Those elements highlighted
and bolded are the modified terms, with
realistic replacing substantial, thus broadening
the scope of the key qualifier in this
definition.
Legislation taking effect the first of the year changes
how serious injuries, illnesses and serious exposure
are defined. Photo courtesy of CAL/OSHA.
These broader definitions are important
because all fatalities and serious
injuries and illnesses must be reported
to Cal/OSHA within eight hours of an
employer learning of the incident. Those
reporting requirements now include all
inpatient hospitalizations, no matter how
long the employee stays, unless it was
for medical observation or testing. An
employer must now report any incident
involving amputation or the loss of an eye.
In addition, this expanded definition
means employers must report physical
harm or death as the result of crimes
committed by coworkers or third parties.
This change is directly tied to the ongoing
discussion around the need for a standard
that specifically addresses violence in the
workplace. By reporting the serious injuries,
illnesses and fatalities as a result of
crime, Cal/OSHA will have more detailed
data that potentially substantiates the
need for such a standard.
New Ways of Reporting
Injuries and Illnesses
The other piece of legislation passed
was AB 1804, which changes the methods
of reporting data to Cal/OSHA. Under
current law, employers may report those
serious injuries, illnesses and fatalities
via phone call and email. Unfortunately,
many employers have failed to include all
the pertinent details the law mandates be
provided. The result has been significant
back and forth between employers and
Cal/OSHA to get the needed information
for an investigation to be effectively
conducted.
This new legislation eliminates the
ability to report an incident via email
and now allows for submission via an
online portal that will be created and
maintained by Cal/OSHA. The portal will
prompt employers for all the necessary
information and ideally, reduce the errors
caused with email submissions. Until the
portal goes live, emailing incidents is still
a viable option. In addition, calling in to
report an incident continues to be a compliant
method of communication.
Starting the first of the year, employers can report
a serious injury, illness or fatality to Cal/OSHA via
phone call or using a soon-to-be-created online
portal. Photo courtesy of Tolman Wiker.
As harvest winds down for most,
now is the opportunity to evaluate your
existing worker safety programs and
begin planning for how you will make the
needed adjustments to be in compliance
in the new year.
For more information about worker
safety, human resources, labor relations,
pesticide safety or food safety issues,
please visit www.agsafe.org, call (209)
526-4400 or email safeinfo@agsafe.org.
AgSafe is a 501c3 nonprofit providing
training, education, outreach and tools
in the areas of safety, labor relations,
food safety and human resources for the
food and farming industries. Since 1991,
AgSafe has educated over 85,000 employers,
supervisors, and workers about these
critical issues.
Comments about this article? We want
to hear from you. Feel free to email us at
article@jcsmarketinginc.com
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West Coast Nut November 2019