Coyote Blog

I usually don't quote other blog posts in their entirety, but this is so classic that I feel the need to.  This is from Holden Law Group, an excellent resource we use to try desperately to remain in compliance with California Labor law when such law can sometimes change many times in a single year, sometimes retroactively.  California has very onerous rules on businesses for COVID occupational health compliance.  This is an update on those rules:

[[ORIGINAL POST]] Cal/OSHA continued its burlesque impersonation of a 6-year-old child at an ice cream shop this past week.  Originally, on May 7th, the state bureaucracy unveiled proposed changes to the COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards (“ETS”).  However, shortly thereafter, Cal/OSHA announced that it was tabling its final vote on the revisions; and instead, was scheduling an “emergency” meeting for June 3^rd because the proposed changes were not in-line with the guidelines of the California Department of Public Health and federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”). Then, last week at this “emergency” meeting, Cal/OSHA initially indicated that it would indeed reject the proposed ETS changes because they were not consistent with the CDC guidance. However, by the end of the meeting, Cal/OSHA unanimously voted in favor of adopting those very same revisions.  Vanilla.  Chocolate. Yes, Chocolate…. Well…. actually Vanilla.  Definitely, Vanilla. Click here to read on – blog posted June 8, 2021….

[[UPDATE]] After this blog was originally posted, Cal/OSHA had yet another “emergency” meeting on June 9, 2021, this time unanimously voting NOT to adopt the proposed new revisions to its regulations.  Mind you, this is the same Cal/OSHA who unanimously voted TO adopt the revisions just a few days ago – and no new guidance from the CDC or public health officials has occurred in the interim – just a letter from the State Health Officer to Cal/OSHA reminding them that their proposed revisions were inconsistent with federal guidance and that the rest of the State would be following that federal guidance starting June 15th.

So where does that leave us, you ask. By voting not to adopt the proposed revisions, the same old Cal/OSHA regulations which have been in effect since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic will remain in effect for the foreseeable future – regulations which are even MORE inconsistent with federal guidance than were the proposed revisions.  So, for now, Cal/OSHA is back to Chocolate ice cream – stale, well past its expiration date, Chocolate ice cream.