The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) Standards Board recently approved to readopt its COVID-19 prevention emergency temporary standards (ETS).

The Office of Administrative Law is set to approve the language for implementation by May 5, 2022. This will be the third readoption of the ETS, and it will remain in effect until Dec. 31, 2022.

The third revised ETS will make some additional material changes and clarifications, including acceptable return-to-work criteria, elimination of certain cleaning and social distancing requirements, and adds a new definition for "returned case," which means a COVID-19 case who returned to work under Cal/OSHA requirements and did not develop any COVID-19 symptoms after returning.

However, the third readopted ETS maintains a large majority of the current Cal/OSHA ETS requirements. This includes employer obligations for exclusion pay to positive cases, providing testing at no cost to symptomatic employees and close contacts, employee screening for symptoms, contact tracing, and notification obligations to employees of potential exposure.

Cal/OSHA is expected to release an updated fact sheet and frequently-asked-questions (FAQs) that will address the third revised ETS. 

The California Credit Union League will continue to monitor this matter and provide further updates to credit unions once more information is available.

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