SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California workplace regulators extended the state's coronavirus pandemic regulations into next year with revisions that businesses say could worsen the labor shortage.
The main change in the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board’s revised rule Thursday erases current distinctions between vaccinated and unvaccinated employees who cant socially distance from each other. Both will be prohibited from workplaces if they come in close contact with someone infected with the virus.
Exposed workers who are vaccinated but asymptomatic will have to stay home for 14 days even if they test negative.
Mitch Steiger, an advocate for the California Labor Federation, told the Associated Press that while he supports the mandate extension, he believes that it could have been made stronger. He believes that anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should be allowed to recover from home regardless of their vaccination status.
Those vaccinated are currently exempted from exclusionary pay, Steiger said. This means that those vaccinated who were exposed to COVID-19 may still be required to go to work if they wear a face covering and are asymptomatic and are exempted from exclusionary pay.
If they return to work, they will have to wear masks and stay six-feet from other people for two weeks.
"Without that being there and covering all workers, workers are going to have to work while sick, they may feel like they have no choice," Steiger said. "And then infect their co-workers, may spread the virus to the public and just overall go in the wrong direction that we think things should be headed in."
Those unvaccinated will be able to collect a paycheck while recovering from the coronavirus.
Stephen Knight is the executive director of Worksafe, a nonprofit dedicated to the health and safety of California workers.
"I don’t see the end in sight, but the answer is not that we just throw up our hands and pretend that we don't have to do our best to keep California workers safe," Knight said.
Even if you’re vaccinated, if those who have been exposed to COVID and cannot socially distance themselves at work you will be sent home for two weeks.
"The idea that this pandemic does not affect people at work, that Cal-OSHA doesn't have the authority to protect people at work is, is really problematic," Knight said.
Problematic is exactly what Robert Moutrie would call the regulations. He’s a policy advocate with the California Chamber of Commerce.
“I think the board's decision removes some of the incentives for employers to push vaccination on their workers, right, because many employers early in the pandemic saw that there are benefits that they’re allowed to keep operating differently if they push those vaccines.”
Employers must pay for COVID-19 tests for vaccinated employees even if they’re asymptomatic if they’ve been exposed.
“We're seeing more demand than ever for rapid tests," Moutrie said. "And we don't see directing them to vaccinated people being the best use of those scarce resources.”
Brian Little has a problem with the change in the type of acceptable masks, which cannot let light pass through it. He’s the director of employment policy for the California Farm Bureau.
"When you hold this up to the light and the ceiling in my office, you can see light through it," Little said. "I mean, it's all of a sudden masks that have been acceptable for a year and a half now all of a sudden are not."
The new changes go into effect mid-January and will last for three months.