By July 1, all businesses must have their workplace prevention plans in place
Despite opposition from NFIB and coalition partners such as the California Chamber, California Retailers, and California Restaurant Association, Senate Bill 553 was signed into law last year, requiring, among other things, that every employer have a workplace violence prevention plan in place by July 1, 2024.
Arguably one of the biggest compliance headaches in state history, it’s a law with few exceptions and must be obeyed, and the deadline fast approaches. In order to answer some of many questions about workplace violence prevention plans, NFIB California invited Hannah Sweiss, an employment law expert with Fisher Phillips, to give our members an informative overview of what lies ahead for them, if they haven’t already produced their plans.
The webinar (see below) ran 50 minutes, which included 10 minutes for questions from NFIB members. In her presentation, she covered the following topics:
- SB 553’s General Requirements
- SB 553’s Broad Application
- Notable Exemptions
- What is Workplace Violence?
- Types of Workplace Violence
- What Does it Mean to Establish, Implement, and Maintain the Plan?
- WVVP Administrators (who is responsible for implementing the plan?)
- Employee Participation
- Coordination with Other Employers
- Accepting/Responding to Reports of Workplace Violence
- Ensuring Employee Compliance
- Communications with Employees
- Emergency Response
- Hazard Identification/Evaluation
- Hazard Corrections
- Past Incident Response and Investigations
- Periodic Review of the Plan
- Training Procedures
- Violent Incident Logs
- Recordkeeping
- Recordkeeping and Access
- Commonly Asked Questions & Answers
- Dept. of Industrial Relations FAQs and Answers
- Compliance and Next Steps.
NFIB thanks Hannah Sweiss for taking the time to aid small business owners in better understanding the new law. Click the arrow below to listen to her presentation.
CA NFIB Virtual Event – Workplace Violence Prevention Plan 2024 from NFIB Video on Vimeo.
