California regulators withdraw controversial work masks guidelines – KIRO 7 Information Seattle

SACRAMENTO, Calif .– (AP) – California’s workplace regulators reversed Wednesday for the second time in a week, withdrawing a controversial pending mask ordinance while considering a rule more in line with Governor Gavin Newsom’s promise that the state would will be fully reopened from the pandemic on Tuesday.

The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board’s revised rule, passed last week after its initial rejection, would have only allowed workers to forego masks if every employee in a room is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. This is in contrast to the state’s broader plan to abolish virtually all masking and social distancing requirements for vaccinated individuals in line with the latest recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The repeal of this workplace regulation before it comes into effect will allow the Board of Directors to consider changes at its June 17th meeting and possibly bring them into effect by the end of the month.

The goal of the unanimous vote, said chairman David Thomas, is to change the workplace ordinance “so that it is in line with the CDC and the California Department of Health so we are all on the same page. That’s what this is about, so we’re not out of step with everyone else. “

The safety committee staff did not provide any indication of the changes it will recommend next week other than that it will try to bring workplace rules closer to public health guidelines.

However, Eric Berg, deputy chief of health for the California Department of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal / OSHA, said that public health guidelines generally allow anyone who is vaccinated to wear a mask indoors. According to these rules, he said, “a vaccinated person does not have to wear a mask at work”.

The reversal came after the state health officer Dr. Tomás Aragón had reaffirmed to board members at a hastily scheduled special meeting that the state will lift most of the masking rules for vaccinated people next week, while continuing to require face coverings for unvaccinated people in indoor public spaces and businesses.

Exceptions, where everyone must remain masked, include public transport, indoor school classes, health and correctional facilities, and places like homeless shelters and cooling centers, Aragón said. Individual companies are also free to require that everyone remain masked under the general rules, he said.

Helen Cleary, director of the Phylmar Regulatory Roundtable, a coalition of large corporations with large offices in California, was among many business leaders calling on the board to adapt its rule to public health needs.

“Employers cannot plan with this high level of uncertainty,” she said. “We are disappointed and frustrated with the confusion, the process, the substance and the lack of leadership.”

The Workplace Board’s more restrictive approach left Newsom in an uncomfortable position as it battles an impending dismissal despite reluctance to override a board he has appointed.

“The public makes no distinction between this board and the rest of the Newsom administration,” Michael Mueller, director of government relations for the California Association of Winegrape Growers, told board members prior to the vote. “What you hear is the Newsom administration saying that wearing masks at work may stay here.”

Pressure on the board of directors grew when a dozen corporate groups, including the California Retailers Association and organizations representing manufacturers, farmers, tourism interests, and other industries, sent a letter to Newsom asking it to immediately issue an emergency injunction to lift the regulations of the board of directors.

Requiring masks unless everyone is vaccinated in a workplace would “create another barrier to reinstatement and reopening” at a time when “we need to provide incentives to bring people back,” they said. Additionally, they said the need for masks for people who are fully vaccinated could lead the public to believe that the vaccine isn’t actually effective.

Corporate organization officials at Wednesday’s meeting repeatedly urged the board to lift its pandemic rules entirely and to rely on Cal / OSHA’s underlying authority to protect workers. Employee representatives opposed that the pandemic was not over yet and that coronavirus variants pose an imminent danger.

Board member Laura Stock said it was important to continue protecting employees who have no realistic choice but to go to work.

For example, government data shows that there have been “70 outbreaks in retail in the past 30 days, more than two a day,” said Stock, who directs the Labor Occupational Health Program at UC Berkeley. “There are still outbreaks.”

Corporate groups also want the board to withdraw its proposal to require employers to provide the most effective N95 masks for voluntary use by employees who work indoors or at major outdoor events and who are not fully vaccinated, starting July 31. That would be costly and competitive with the needs of health workers, they said.

But “the N95 is the one that checked all of these boxes,” said Stock.

The Cal / OSHA Board of Directors regulations apply to almost every workplace in the state, including workers in offices, factories, and retail stores. The pandemic rules apply to all employees, except for those who work from home or when an individual employee has no contact with other people.

Even ahead of Wednesday’s vote, the board members stressed that their revised rules were temporary and they set up a subcommittee to continue working on the revisions.

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