California’s circuitous journey to relaxing coronavirus-related workplace safety rules could finally end Thursday, when a state board is set to decide on a proposal that would end physical distancing requirements for all workers and allow most fully vaccinated employees in many workplaces to stop wearing masks.
The proposal, which the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board will consider during a meeting that begins at 10 a.m., would also do away with the requirement for solid, cleanable partitions designed to reduce viral transmission, such as the now-familiar plastic barriers that separate customers and cashiers.
Workplaces still would be required to provide masks to workers who are not fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and make sure they wear them while indoors or in shared workplace vehicles or employer-provided transportation. Employers also would have to provide respirators — such as N95 masks — should an employee who is not yet fully vaccinated request one.
And employers also would be asked to maximize the amount of fresh outside air that comes into their buildings.
Unvaccinated workers would generally be able to take off their masks indoors only if they’re alone or eating or drinking.
California poised to drop mask rules for vaccinated workers and distancing rules for everyone at workplaces.
The proposal now on the table from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, is notably less restrictive than previous standards that the board voted on — which were rejected, advanced, then ultimately rescinded before they ever took effect.
Under those earlier rules, fully vaccinated people would still have been required to mask up in an indoor workplace if even just one person who was unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown entered the room.
The current draft would affect most workplaces but not healthcare settings, which are regulated by a stricter standard.
Normally, it would take at least 10 days before any board-advanced standards would go into effect, pending a review by the state Office of Administrative Law. But Gov. Gavin Newsom has said if the board approves the proposal, he would enact an executive order to make those changes immediately.
As of Tuesday, restrictions were lifted at most businesses, and Californians fully vaccinated for COVID-19 could go without masks in most settings.
More Coverage
Starting Tuesday, coronavirus-related capacity restrictions and physical distancing requirements were lifted for the general public at almost all businesses and other institutions. Residents who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 can now go without face masks in most nonwork situations.
Unvaccinated individuals, however, are still required to mask up in public indoor settings. And everyone, regardless of inoculation status, has to wear a face covering while in transit hubs or taking public transportation; in healthcare settings and long-term-care facilities; indoors at K-12 schools, childcare facilities or other youth settings; in homeless shelters, emergency shelters and cooling centers; and in correctional facilities and detention centers.
The specter of California’s reopening hung over the board’s previous deliberations on what additional rules, if any, to keep in place for worksites. Many individuals and business groups said that any workplace standards should merely dovetail with wider state regulations, as it no longer made sense to impose more restrictions on a “fully” reopened economy.
What workers want from customers: Don’t be a jerk, say if you’re vaccinated, and please keep masking
What workers want from customers: Don’t be a jerk, say if you’re vaccinated, and please keep masking
Now that California has eased its COVID rules, many customers at stores, restaurants and hotels want things to be normal. Here’s what workers think.
Others decried the earlier proposed mask rules as confusing, and said forcing vaccinated workers to wear face coverings if unvaccinated people shared the room would spark unnecessary workplace resentment.
Business groups also have said any requirement to provide N95 masks would be an unduly onerous expense and previously objected to the idea that they should be required to confirm their employees’ vaccination status or enforce the rules that come with that determination.
Some workers and representatives from labor groups, however, have urged the board to keep mask requirements in place — warning that the danger posed by COVID-19 has not yet passed, and that rules that might make sense for the public at large can’t simply be applied wholesale to worksites, where employees often cluster in close quarters for extended periods of time.
During an event in Bakersfield on Wednesday, Newsom noted that concerns remained “around self-attestation and record-keeping related to employers with employees that are not vaccinated,” as well as the supply of N95s, which he said the state can provide.
“This is not the last act,” he said. “I want to continue to work with industries, large and small, to work through some of these issues in real time. And I’m prepared to do that through executive order after we determine exactly where OSHA lands.”
California fully reopened Tuesday, so residents who are fully vaccinated were able to go into many public places without masks, but many kept them on.
Given the trajectory of the pandemic, state officials have said they feel largely comfortable with relaxing many of the safety measures that have long defined California’s battle against COVID-19 — though they stress that those who are unvaccinated should still take steps to protect themselves.
Over the past week, California has reported an average of 872 new cases and roughly 20 new COVID-19 deaths per day, according to data compiled by The Times. Both figures are among the lowest seen since the earliest days of the pandemic.
And a steadily growing swath of the population is armored against future outbreaks through vaccination. Almost 57% of Californians are at least partially inoculated at this point.
