Under California state labor laws, the employer is mandated to maintain a safe workplace. Part of that responsibility is to keep the environment of the workplace safe from hazards. As the pandemic continues to grow, this responsibility of the owner becomes paramount to keep the employee safe and virus free.
Part of the problem is that with all of the information out there, it’s hard to parse out whose advice you should follow. Here’s the line of guidance you should follow.
- If your city has any ordinances or executive orders, that’s the first area you need to check. Most cities are not setting up their own guidelines for how to deal with COVID, but many of the large cities like San Francisco have their own orders apart from their County.
- County Health Orders: This is where you’ll find the orders that relate to your office. Some are very clear in stating who can and can’t be open, some are not. So, this may take some weeding through. Generally speaking, the guidance that I have seen from the counties I’ve looked at do follow the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) guidelines. Let’s jump to that.
- The next stage that you need to check is the CDPH site, it has some great information. Chances are that you’ve already had to go to this site when you looked at the County information. The CDPH guidance will largely follow the CDC guidelines for your industry.
- Lastly, make sure to check OSHA guidelines to make sure that you don’t miss anything from their perspective.
This is a lot to go through and the interaction between local, state, and federal requirements is a lot to do. If you want help navigating through this, set up a call with me HERE and I’ll walk you through it. At a minimum, make sure to follow the recommendations below.
Workplace Set Up
- Social Distancing. Keeping everyone, patients and staff, 6 feet wherever possible.
- Workplace Disinfectant. Having cleaning procedures are key to avoid any employee from contracting the virus within the workplace. Whatever these are, please document what procedures and cleaning you have done.
- Screening patients and employees before they come in and throughout the day for COVID symptoms.
Best of luck and stay safe out there.
