BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 578 (Low) - Occupational safety and health.
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|Version: April 13, 2015 |Policy Vote: L. & I.R. 4 - 1 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: July 6, 2015 |Consultant: Robert Ingenito |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 578 would require an applicant for a temporary or
permanent variance to an occupational safety and health standard
to give notice to affected workers (or their representatives) at
the place of employment, as specified.
Fiscal
Impact: The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) would incur
first-year costs (special funds) of $291,000 and ongoing costs
of $275,000 to implement the provisions of the bill.
Background: The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Standards
Board) adopts occupational safety and health standards that are
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designed to protect California workers. However, current law
includes a process whereby an employer may apply for permission
to deviate or not follow an existing standard (also known as a
variance). Variances can be either permanent or temporary in
nature.
Permanent Variances. An employer may apply to the Standards
Board for a permanent variance from a standard (or portion of
one), upon a showing of an alternative program, method,
practice, means, device, or process which will provide equal or
superior safety for employees. The Standards Board will grant
the request if it determines that the condition or practice
proposed to be used by the employer will provide places of
employment which are as safe and healthful as those which would
prevail if he or she complied with the existing standard. The
Standards Board is required to conduct hearings on requests for
permanent variances after employees or employee representatives
are properly notified.
Temporary Variances. In contrast, temporary variances are
short-term in duration. Temporary variances also have different
procedures and standards that apply. First, applications for
temporary variances are made to the Division of Occupational
Safety and Health (DOSH), rather than the Standards Board.
However, the decision by DOSH to allow or deny the variance may
be appealed to the Standards Board.
The criteria for the granting of a temporary variance also
differ from those governing permanent variances. A temporary
variance shall be granted only if it has been established that
the employer (1) is unable to comply with a standard by its
effective date because of unavailability of professional or
technical personnel or of materials and equipment needed to come
into compliance with the standard or because necessary
construction or alteration of facilities cannot be completed by
the effective date, (2) is taking all available steps to
safeguard the employees against the hazards covered by the
standard; and (3) has an effective program for coming into
compliance with the standard as quickly as practicable.
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Proposed Law:
This bill would amend current law related to variances from
occupational safety and health standards. Specifically, this
bill would, among other things, do the following:
Require an applicant for a permanent variance to an
occupational safety and health standard to also give notice
to workers at the place of employment who will be
"affected" by or exposed to hazards by the permanent
variance, or representatives of the affected employees.
Provide that an applicant for a permanent variance shall
provide certification that the affected employees have been
provided notice of the request.
Provide that, upon request, "affected employees" or
their representatives shall be granted party status in
permanent variance proceedings.
Require an employer applying for a temporary variance to
an occupational safety and health standard to also give
notice to workers at the place of employment who will be
"affected" by the temporary variance, or representative of
the affected workers.
Provide that a temporary variance may be granted only
after notice to employees and other "affected workers" and
an opportunity for a hearing.
Require an employer's application for a temporary
variance to contain a certification that the employer has
given the required notice to "affected workers" or their
representatives.
Provide that, upon request, any "affected worker" or
representative of affected workers, shall be granted party
status to the variance proceedings.
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Related
Legislation: AB 1277 (Skinner, 2014), among other things,
attempted to address issues related to notification and due
process rights of affected employees in variance proceedings.
However, the language was not identical to that contained in
this bill. AB 1277 was held in the Assembly Appropriations
Committee.
Staff
Comments: As noted above, current law requires the Standards
Board to conduct hearings on requests for variances after
employees or their representatives are properly notified and
given an opportunity to appear. Standards Board regulations
provide that "affected employees" and an authorized employee
representative may elect to participate as parties at any time
before commencement of the variance hearing. "Affected employee"
includes employees of the employer seeking the variance (rather
than those of other employers).
Regarding instances of requests for variances for elevator
construction and other public conveyances, such requests
generally come from the building owner. However, the owner
typically has few affected employees. Instead, employees
performing the labor to repair an elevator would be installing
the public conveyance but would not have been a party to the
variance proceeding.
DIR indicates that the increased workload resulting from the
bill would require additional staff, at a cost of $291,000
initially and $275,000 ongoing.
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