California bill would extend COVID workplace exposure law

A bill introduced before the California Assembly on Friday would extend by two years the expiration date of an existing law that punishes employers that fail to disclose workplace COVID-19 infections to employees.

A.B. 2693 states that existing law authorizes the Division of Occupational Safety and Health “to prohibit the performance of an operation or process, or entry into that place of employment when, in its opinion, a place of employment, operation, or process, or any part thereof, exposes workers to the risk of infection with COVID-19, so as to constitute an imminent hazard to employees.”

Existing law requires “a notice of the prohibition to be posted in a conspicuous location at the place of employment and makes violating the prohibition or removing the notice, except as specified, a crime.”

While existing law repeals those provisions Jan. 1, 2023, the new bill would extend those provisions until Jan. 1, 2025.