I hear employers say all the time; I wish there were some sort of a Cal-OSHA and California Labor Law Compliance Checklist.
Having heard that a lot lately I thought I would take a few minutes and give all California Employers a few ideas on what they can and should do to keep current with their compliance needs.
Cal-OSHA Trainings
Depending on the industry that you are in you should be doing Safety Training Topics ranging from every ten business days for the construction industry to every ninety days if you work in an office or some form of a retail store that does not come into contact with many job-related hazards. The way that I explain it is the dirtier that you get your hands, the more often you should be doing Safety Training.
- New Hires, when an employer hires a new employee, they should be conducting a Safety Training Topic that will give an overview of what this employee will come into contact with while at work. This Initial Safety Training will give the employee the general information that they will need to conduct themselves in a safe manner while carrying out the duties they have been hired to do.
- All employees should be trained whenever new equipment is brought into service. This training would include any potential hazards that can be identified with the use of this equipment. This training would also include what employees are to do in the event of said hazard to ensure the continued safe operation of equipment.
- Once a year employer”s should also conduct a meeting explaining how employees are to respond in emergency situations. This training would also include where employees are to gather in the event of a need to exit the facility.
- Hazardous Materials Communication Training. Once a year employer’s should make sure that all employees have been trained on the subject of how to read a Safety Data Sheet. When employees can read and understand the Safety Data Sheet, they will know what to do if any chemical should be mishandled in any way.
- Heat Illness Prevention Training should also be done if you have employees that work in temperatures of ninety degrees or more.
California Labor Law aka Human Resources Training and Planing
- Every year you should take your employee handbook and at least re-read it. You may or may not want to change any of your current policies. As you read your employee handbook, this would be a good time to make sure that it will work well with the new laws that will be coming into play in the upcoming year.
- During the year, you need to do training that will cover the following California Labor LawRequirements, Sexual Harassment, Hostile Work Environment, and Discrimination based upon any protected fields, such as race, gender, or age.
California Employer’s Services can help you.
In all honesty, it is very difficult for employers to comply today. Even if you did everything that was mentioned in this short note, you would not be in compliance with everything. The reason is quite simple there is a lot more to this than simply haveing and reviewing your employee handbook. The real question concerning your employee handbook is this, will it help you or hurt you on the day that you need to go to court. Your employee handbook is your major front line of defense when it comes to establishing all of your companies policies and procedures. If your employee handbook is not current or does not address how your company complies with the California Labor Laws, you could have big problems.
The same can be said for the area of Cal-OSHA and OSHA compliance. If you are not doing every aspect of your Illness and Injury Prevention Program, then you are not in compliance, and you could be fined accordingly.
We have employer’s who come to us all the time saying I just can’t keep up can you help me? We get excited when that happens because we are the Cal-OSHA, Labor Law experts. On top of that, we make compliance easy. We love helping employers to get the compliance house in order. CES Today handles all areas of compliance, we not only know what the laws are but we know how they are being enforced out in the field.