Cal/OSHA Hits Pause on Emergency Temporary Standards for COVID-19 Prevention

An Important Update to our Recent Webinar with Newmeyer Dillion Covering California’s June 15 Reopening

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Employers scrambling to prepare for the June 15th Reopening announced by Governor Newsom have spent the last week pouring over the revised Emergency Temporary Standards for COVID-19 Prevention (Revised ETS) approved by the Cal/Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) Standards Board on June 3, 2021. After the recent meeting of the Standards Board, however, it’s time to hit pause.

On June 9, the Cal OSHA Standards Board held a specialty meeting to reconsider its Revised ETS in light of the latest guidance on face coverings issued by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on June 7, 2021. Following a presentation by the CDPH and extensive public comment, the Cal OSHA Standards Board voted unanimously to withdraw the Revised ETS and to take up the issue again at its next scheduled meeting on June 17, 2021. The net result in the interim is that California employers who intend to reopen on June 15 must initially comply with all of the requirements of the Cal/OSHA Standards Board Emergency Temporary Standards for COVID-19 Prevention as initially issued on of the November 20, 2020, including but not limited to, its social distancing, physical partitioning and mask-wearing requirements.