California Workplace Violence Prevention Requirements

July 1, 2024, is the deadline to comply with California Labor Code § 6401.9, stemming from SB 553. This new law requires law firms and other employers with locations accessible to the public or where 10 or more employees are present at once to take specific steps to prevent and respond to workplace violence, including a lengthy list of requirements for a workplace violence prevention plan, training, record keeping, and record retention. By the July 1 deadline, each location must have a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan and must document the completion of training by every employee. Non-compliance invites substantial penalties. This new law is the first in the nation to require workplace violence prevention plans and training outside the healthcare industry and is catching many employers by surprise.

PD&A’s sister company, Threat Assessment Group (TAG), also founded by Park Dietz, MD, PhD, has been providing workplace violence prevention training and consultation to the nation’s largest employers since 1987 and is making TAG’s California Compliance Package available to law firms immediately. The package makes it possible to achieve compliance by July 1, 2024, with these four components:

TAG’s Model Workplace Violence Prevention Plan

TAG has created a 12-page model plan that is more understandable and straightforward than Cal/OSHA’s model plan and has the advantage of supplementation with TAG’s proprietary information. The plan is supplied as an editable template.  You will need to identify the people responsible for the plan and training, the people to whom questions should be addressed, the people to whom reports of workplace violence should be made, and the people to be notified of hazards identified by employees. You will be able to modify language in the plan to correspond to your customary language.  (TAG can provide consultation in finalizing your plan and/or refer you to a California employment lawyer who has studied these new requirements.)

TAG’s “Workplace Violence Prevention Training”

Your employees will be provided access to an e-learning lesson entitled “Workplace Violence Prevention Training” hosted on TAG’s learning management system (LMS).  Our LMS records the names and date of completion of each employee completing the course, and you will have access to these training records which the law requires you maintain. The law requires that employees complete the training at the time of hire and annually thereafter, and all employees must complete the training by July 1, 2024, to be compliant.

TAG’s e-learning lesson includes everything required by California as well as TAG’s proprietary features that go beyond the California requirements—which are narrowly focused on violent actions and threats—to improve employee safety with recognition and reporting of earlier warning signs. We’re very pleased with this review of the training:

Employment law firm Jackson Lewis P.C. has reviewed TAG’s “Workplace Violence Prevention Training” e-learning and praised it as an outstanding training module.  While there is little guidance on what the law requires for training to be compliant, Jackson Lewis believes it provides an excellent overview of all key areas required by SB 553, and the firm continues to look to TAG as its go-to expert on workplace violence prevention.

To preview the lesson, you’ll need to sign an NDA and provide the email addresses of up to five people you’d like us to invite to preview the lesson. The lesson is customizable, including adding your logo and changing specific language, for an additional fee.

Workplace Violence Incident Log

We provide a template that can be duplicated for internal use and is in the form of a fillable PDF file providing fields for completion on each incident of Threats of Violence or Violent Actions.  These must be maintained for five years, and California employees and their representatives have the right to inspect the logs, which contain no personal identifiers or protected health information.

Workplace Violence Hazards Log

We provide a template that can be duplicated for internal use.  Although the law is vague as to what constitutes a hazard, a few examples are given.  Employers are required to inspect each facility for hazards by July 1, 2024 and annually thereafter, to investigate hazards identified by employees, and to take steps to correct hazards.  These logs must be maintained for five years.

OTHER SERVICES

Law firms seeking more robust training may wish to license TAG’s state-of-the-art and complete e-learning lessons for employees, managers, or both, for which a California version is available. These may be hosted on your LMS or ours, allowing you to track completion of the training by your employees at the time of hire and annually, and to maintain the training records for five years, as required.

Large firms ready for a state-of-the-art workplace violence prevention program are invited to learn more about the TAG360 program, the 2024 version of which already includes the new elements required for California compliance and much, much more.

As we’ve done for 37 years, TAG offers consultation to help you manage employee and client suicide risk, violence risk, and misconduct as it arises, develop your prevention program, mitigate risk, and help keep your employees safe from violence.

For more information, including pricing, contact Cathy Chambers at cathy@taginc.com