“It’s good that we’re realizing that vaccines aren’t the silver bullet to get us out of this,” Steiger said. “There’s never a good time to start disarming against COVID-19.”
The safety board’s adoption of the revised rules comes a day after California reinstituted a temporary indoor masking mandate for vaccinated and unvaccinated people — with plenty of exemptions — in a bid to slow the spread of the virus as people prepare to travel and gather for the holidays.
The proposed California workplace rule changes recognize "the science that vaccinated people can transmit the virus, and early reports show that to be especially true with omicron,” said Saskia Kim, regulatory policy specialist with the California Nurses Association.
Under the state's current workplace rules, vaccinated employees can keep working even if they've been exposed, unless they show symptoms — under the assumption that the vaccine generally will protect them.
Other states besides California that adopted emergency COVID-19 workplace safety measures include Michigan, Oregon and Virginia.
The Biden administration has ordered all U.S. employers with more than 100 workers to require their employees to be vaccinated, to be tested regularly or to wear masks at work, starting Jan. 4. But the order is stalled amid court challenges from Republican-led states and fears among employers that the rules could make the labor shortage worse.
The California Chamber of Commerce led a coalition of about 60 business groups arguing in a letter to the state safety board that vaccinations are still largely effective and usually prevent serious illness and death even if there are breakthrough infections.
The new rules that require testing, even of vaccinated workers with no symptoms, could also strain the availability of rapid tests and boost employers’ costs, said the groups, which include agribusiness, retailers, home builders, restaurateurs and manufacturers, along with some cities and counties.
The stricter safeguards “will only worsen the present labor shortage affecting California workplaces,” Moutrie predicted. “Moreover, reinstituting social distancing on a per-person basis is just not feasible in many workplaces” that would have to physically move workstations or equipment.
Motion Picture Association of America Vice President and Senior Counsel Melissa Patack told the board that the rules aren’t feasible for filming movies, television shows or commercials because “actors cannot wear masks while performing.”
She added that workers doing hair and makeup for actors can't stay 6 feet apart, adding that proposed rules “could result in the shutdown of many productions.”
The safety board conformed its current regulations to general statewide standards imposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in June, after weeks of intrigue during which the board first postponed, then rejected, then adopted, then rescinded earlier proposed rules that would have conflicted with Newsom’s broader directive.
Labor groups generally have not objected to the latest changes.
But they are upset that other proposed rules that the board plans to consider in March 2022 would eliminate employer-paid sick leave for workers who are exposed to or contract the virus.
If the proposed elimination stands, “workers will be forced to make the impossible decision of going to work while sick or staying home without pay," Stephen Knight, executive director of the labor advocacy group Worksafe, said in an online petition to the Cal/OSHA board.
The board on Thursday also hosted a panel discussion on how it should handle future pandemic regulations, prompted by a proposal last month by the Western Steel Council.
The group suggested in a letter to the board that the whole regulatory process has become so complicated, and the nature of the pandemic is so ever-changing, that the board should stop trying to set its own workplace rules, and instead simply instruct businesses to follow the state Department of Public Health’s evolving guidelines.
