White Paper: Workplace Violence Prevention for California Employers

California employers have long been required to provide a healthful and safe environment for their employees — not just related to workplace injuries and illnesses, but also in reducing the risk of workplace violence. Overall, employers haven’t had any specific requirements around workplace violence other than to generally prevent and mitigate it — but that changed when California Senate Bill (SB) 553 was signed into law on September 30, 2023, establishing new workplace violence prevention standards.

Beginning July 1, 2024, nearly all California employers must comply with the state’s general industry workplace violence prevention standards — and CalChamber’s free Workplace Violence Prevention for California Employers white paper covers what employers should know about these new requirements.

New Obligations

New obligations under the law include:

• Developing and implementing a workplace violence prevention plan;
• Training employees on the plan;
• Identifying, evaluating and correcting workplace violence hazards;
• Creating workplace violence incident logs; and
• Various recordkeeping requirements.

Answers to Questions

The Workplace Violence Prevention for California Employers white paper answers several important questions for employers, including:

• Which employers are covered?
• What qualifies as workplace violence?
• What is a workplace violence prevention plan?
• What type of training is required?
• How do employers identify workplace violence hazards?
• How do employers respond to workplace violence incidents?
• What documentation is required?

Because there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for employers that must create and implement a workplace violence prevention program that fulfills all obligations under the law — each employer’s program must be uniquely tailored to the specific conditions of their worksites and operations — this white paper also lists resources available to help employers better understand and complete these obligations.

Workplace Violence Prevention for California Employers is available now for nonmembers. CalChamber members can access the white paper by logging into HRCalifornia.