On September 30th, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 553 (SB553), which requires most California employers to implement a robust workplace violence prevention program by July 1st, 2024.
SB 553 is extremely comprehensive, and countless organizations are going to find it difficult to be fully in compliance with this law by July 1st. The law is broken down into four main categories; below are a few highlights.
Many organizations are going to be hardpressed to be fully in compliance with this law by July of 2024.
Plan Governance
A strong workplace violence plan must have the appropriate oversight. While SB553 has some requirements that you might expect such as being easily accessible by employees, it also has some groundbreaking stipulations, such as including employees in the development and implementation of the plan.
Plan Contents
SB 553 has requirements regarding employer initiated workplace violence restraining orders. Many organizations do not have experience with restraining orders, and will need outside legal counsel to assist with this new mandate.
Violent Incident Log
Your organization may already keep a log of workplace incidents or accidents, but SB 553 has privacy and Personally identifiable information (PII) considerations for Violent Incident Logs. Many organizations are going to find these challenging, including the requirement for any employee to view and copy the log.
Plan Employee Training
Training is what validates any type of plan; it's what allows a plan to grow and strengthen. SB 553 requires training for new employees as well as annual training for all employees. But it also calls for training on any corrective measures the organization has had to implement in the last year for workplace violence. This level of transparency will be a change for many companies, and for those not making the workplace as safe as it needs to be, may lead to uncomfortable conversations with their employees.
Illuminate Advisory Readiness Assessments
Not sure where to start? We offer both online and consultant led Readiness Assessments for SB 553.
Set up a call with James Green here: