California will reopen and do away with virtually all mask and social distancing requirements for vaccinated people in less than two weeks, in accordance with the CDC’s May 13 guidelines.
But employment regulators in the Golden State are not ready to abandon the safety protocols by June 15 — a move that is angering some business groups.
The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board said Thursday it was exploring new rules that would only allow workers to take off their masks if everyone in the room was fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The rules could remain in effect until next year.
The proposal would “create two classes of people,” a business coalition leader said. Helen Cleary, director of the Phylmar Regulatory Roundtable, said she was “astonished” the safety board was not taking the lead from federal and state health officials.
“Unfortunately, the proposed regulations do not conform to the most recent CDC guidance, and will create an inconsistent standard in the workplace as compared to the rest of the State,” California Chamber of Commerce and more than five dozen other business organizations said in a letter to Cal/OSHA Wednesday.
Members of the safety board said the plan, which would apply to almost every workplace in the state, is in line with scientific research and has the support of the state’s Department of Public Health.
Employees have “longer cumulative exposures” in the workplace than customers, and enforcing mask rules only against those who are not vaccinated would create issues for employers, member Eric Berg said.
More than 17 million Californians are currently fully vaccinated, out of 40 million total residents, according to Sacramento health officials.
“A very large proportion of California employees will remain unvaccinated as of June 15, 2021,” Cal/OSHA said in its recommendation. “Due to changes in social norms, as mask-wearing and physical distancing decline among fully vaccinated people, those precautions are likely to decline among unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people as well.”
At a virtual Thursday hearing on the issue, most speakers opposed the rules, while unions, teamsters, machinists, utility workers, engineers and school employees supported them.
“CalOSHA is out of step with the rest of the country,” said Andrew Sommer on behalf of the California Employers COVID-19 Prevention Coalition.
“We need worksites to be able to operate under normal conditions {when the state reopens},” added Melissa Patack, a vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America.
“Worksite outbreaks are still occurring,” said supporter Maggie Robbins, an occupational health specialist with Worksafe Inc.
“The workplace is not the same as deciding to go to a dinner party or the gym or go to a movie,” she said. “There’s a lot of work to be done before we have a substantially immune population where we can relax more of the controls.”
Many were also critical of a proposal that would require companies to provide N95 masks to workers who are not fully vaccinated, noting the employers would have to track worker’s status and stockpile physical protection equipment.
With AP wires