SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Local and state leaders are calling for the passage of a new law that would require employers to report Covid-19 cases in the workplace. Assembly Bill 685 would make it mandatory for a business to notify workers within 24 hours of learning of exposure to Covid-19, or failure to do so could result in a misdemeanor with a $10,000 fine.
“We expect employers would of course tell workers if there’s been an outbreak or if they’d been exposed, but that’s just not happening, and it won't unless the state steps in and requires it," said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego.
Gonzalez said required workplace notification should've been happening long before now, saying it is "essential to stop the bleeding really in our community where we’ve seen an increase."
Gonzalez, along with Assemblymembers Eloise Gomez Reyes, D-San Bernardino, and Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, asked their fellow legislators to pass Assembly Bill 685, under which employers would be required to provide a 24- hour notice to all employees at a worksite should any worker be exposed to COVID-19. They would also be required to report a workplace COVID-19 positive test, diagnosis, order to quarantine or isolate, or death that could be COVID- 19 related to Cal/OSHA and the California Department of Public Health.
"Essential workers are risking their lives and the lives of their loved ones whenever they go to work, and although currently employers must report fatalities and serious incidents, it is only recommended that employers report infections," Reyes said.
Reyes, who wrote the bill, said without a requirement to report Covid-19 exposure, no workplace in California is safe. Bill co-author Rivas also echoed the severity of workers rights to know if they've been exposed to this virus.
"Many workers like my grandfather, a lifelong farm-worker from Mexico, just can't up and quit, so if we have designated workers as essential, it is our responsibility to treat them as essential and ensure they are informed and protected,” Rivas said.
Laurinda Fiddler, who works as a Disney cast member says returning to work could be dangerous to her family's health, so she wants companies to report positive cases.
"My biggest concern is just not knowing when I get exposed by somebody else. I don't want to bring this home to my daughter who has asthma or my mother who is 86 years old and will be moving in with me soon," said Fiddler, who has a heart condition, and we're exposed by people from all over the world."
As California looks to reopen more businesses amid the pandemic, more workers, especially Latino, Black and Asian/Pacific Islander workers, are facing serious risk from a lack of accurate data on outbreaks, the bill's authors said.
"Over 140,000 Latinos in California have tested positive for COVID-19 and over 3,000 have died -- numbers grossly disproportionate to the population and make up the majority of our state's low-wage workers," Gonzalez said. "From our hospitals and grocery stores to meatpacking plants, restaurant kitchens, and countless other businesses, workers remain on the job to maintain our supply chain and then bring home the infection to their loved ones and others in the community. Without a requirement to report COVID-19 exposures, no workplace in California is safe."
Amber Baur, executive director, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union said she has heard from countless workers "that many employers are refusing to follow Cal-Osha guidance and public health directives."
But there is opposition to the bill as a coalition of employers, including the California Chamber of Commerce wrote "AB 685's definition of "exposure." is broad and vague and includes a "name and shame" provision.
Mitch Steiger of the California Labor Federation calls employer failure to notify workers of COVID-19 exposure is shameful.
"Over and over, employers have failed to notify workers when COVID-19 exposure occurs, even when employers do give a warning, the notification is vague, inaccurate, or designed to threaten workers into tolerating unsafe work environments. As a result, case numbers are skyrocketing across a wide variety of industries and uncontrollable outbreaks threaten the lives of not just these workers, but their families and everyone they contact," Steiger said.
AB-685 was heard Wednesday in the Senate Labor Committee, where it passed, and it will go to the Senate Committee on Appropriations before it goes to the entire Senate on the floor. Then, it will need to go back to the Assembly for a concurrence vote before heading to the Governor's desk by August 31st.