On September 30, 2023, California’s governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 553, which expands the state’s workplace violence prevention (WVP) requirements, adding duties and rights for most employers in the state. Most importantly, SB 553 requires all non-exempt employers in the state to create WVP plans. These expanded requirements will be administered by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH, but generally referred to as “Cal/OSHA”), which already administers WVP planning requirements for healthcare employers (which I wrote about HERE), and has been working on a general rule (I wrote about the latest draft HERE). The remainder of this note discusses SB 553, which takes effect on January 1, 2024 but remains subject to further rulemakings.
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