California employers now have less than one month left to comply with Cal/OSHA’s requirement that they institute Workplace Violence Prevention Plans (WVPPs) to help prevent acts of violence in the workplace, identified as the third leading cause of work-related fatalities in the U.S. This requirement arises from the passage of last year’s Senate Bill 553, which amended the Labor Code to add a new section 6401.9 codifying the WVPP requirement.

Although a model WVPP for non-healthcare businesses can be found on the Cal/OSHA website, the expectation is that employers will customize this plan for their specific business. In addition, while the model plan states that employers “will” implement policies and procedures to address workplace violence, Cal/OSHA wants businesses to actually institute these procedures prior to the July 1 deadline. For these reasons, employers who simply adopt Cal/OSHA’s model plan are likely to find themselves out of compliance come July 1st.

In addition, the plans must provide for employee engagement/feedback, and all employees must be trained on the WVPP and related topics by July 1st. After that date, there are ongoing inspection, update, and recordkeeping requirements.

For more information about the WVPP requirement, please see Cal/OSHA’s Workplace Violence Prevention Guidance and Resources or reach out to us. We can assist with getting a compliant WVPP in place before the July 1st deadline.