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California workplace regulators returned to themselves for the second time in a week Wednesday, withdrawing their controversial pending mask regulation while they considered a rule closely aligned with Governor Gavin Newsom’s promise that the state would fully reopen from the pandemic on Tuesday.
The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board’s revised rule, adopted last week after initially being rejected, would allow workers to forgo masks only if every employee in the room was fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. This contrasts with the state’s broader plan to eliminate nearly all masking and social distancing requirements for vaccinated people, in line with the latest recommendations from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Withdrawing this workplace rule before it goes into effect allows the board of directors to consider the changes at its June 17 meeting, potentially taking effect by the end of the month.
Chairman David Thomas said the point of the unanimous vote was to change the workplace regulation “so that it matches the CDC and the California Department of Public Health, so we’re all on the same page. That’s what this is about, so we’re not out of step with any another person “.
Safety Council staff was not specific about the changes it would recommend next week, other than that they will try to align more closely with workplace rules with public health guidelines.
But Eric Berg, vice president of health for the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, said public health guidelines generally allow anyone who is vaccinated to skip wearing a mask indoors. Under these rules, he said, “a person who has been vaccinated will not have to wear a mask at work.”
The decline came after state health official Dr. Thomas Aragon reiterated to board members at a hastily-scheduled special meeting that the state would end next week most of its masking rules for vaccinated people, while continuing to require face coverings for unvaccinated people in indoor public spaces. and companies.
Aragon said exceptions where everyone must remain masked include public transportation, boarding school classes, health care and correctional facilities, and in places like homeless shelters and cooling centers. He said individual companies are also free to require everyone to remain masked under the general rules.
Helen Cleary, director of the Phylmar Regulatory Roundtable, an alliance of large companies with major California operations, was among several business representatives urging the board to comply with its rule with public health requirements.
“Employers cannot plan with this high level of uncertainty,” she said. “We are disappointed and frustrated by the confusion, process, substance and lack of leadership.”
The workplace council’s more restrictive approach has put Newsom in the awkward position of running a pending recall election, although he has been reluctant to bypass the board that appoints him.
“The public does not distinguish between this board and the rest of Newsom’s management,” Michael Miller, director of government relations for the California Association of Winegrape Growers, told board members before the vote. “What they’re hearing is Newsom’s management saying that wearing masks at work may be OK.”
Pressure on the board arose when dozens of trade groups, including the California Retailers Association and organizations representing manufacturers, farmers, tourism interests and other industries, sent Newsom a letter asking him to immediately issue an emergency order repealing the board’s regulations.
They said requiring masks unless they are all vaccinated in the workplace would “create another barrier to re-employment and reopening” at a time when “we need to provide incentives to bring people back”. Furthermore, they said, requiring masks for people who are fully vaccinated may lead the public to believe the vaccine isn’t really effective.
Representatives of business organizations at Wednesday’s meeting repeatedly asked the board to scrap pandemic rules entirely and rely on Cal/OSHA’s primary authority to protect workers. Staff advocates responded that the pandemic is not over and variants of the coronavirus pose a looming danger.
Board member Laura Stock said it’s important to keep protecting employees who have no realistic choice but to go to work.
For example, state data shows that in the retail sector in the past 30 days “there have been 70 outbreaks, more than two days a day,” said Stock, who directs the Labor Occupational Health Program at UC Berkeley. “Outbreaks are still happening.”
Business groups also want the board to withdraw its proposal to require employers to start providing the most effective N95 masks for voluntary use by employees who work indoors or at large outdoor events and are not fully vaccinated, starting July 31. That would be costly and would compete with the needs of health care workers, they said.
But Stock said “it was the N95 that checked all these boxes” for safety.
Cal/OSHA board regulations apply in nearly every workplace in the state, including those working in offices, factories, and retail. Its pandemic rules apply to all employees except for those who work from home or where one employee is not in contact with other people.
Even before Wednesday’s vote, board members confirmed that their revised rules were temporary, and appointed a subcommittee to continue working on the revisions.
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