California will implement new safeguards and has drafted a playbook to help protect the state’s frontline workers from COVID-19 and aid employers in reopening their businesses, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement Friday.
The state’s 33-page Employer Playbook, released Friday, provides cleaning guidelines, technical assistance and procedures for handling a positive COVID-19 test in the workplace.
Gov. Newsom said he is working with the state’s legislature to build on his earlier executive action to provide worker protections such as extended paid leave and workers compensation access for front-line workers, and has allocated dollars toward providing safe, temporarily isolated spaces for agricultural and farmworkers who test positive for COVID-19.
The statement also noted that the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health has stepped up targeted investigations of high-risk industries that have seen the highest levels of COVID-19 outbreaks and that the agency intends to work with the legislature to require employers to report outbreaks to local health departments to track transmission.
This article was first published by Business Insurance.
