Employment Law and Cal-OSHA requirements going into 2016 are becoming much more difficult and complex.
Maybe you have not heard the news but it is not favorable for employers when it comes to the new employment laws and the new Cal-Osha fine structure. Cal-Osha will be increasing the rate of its fines by over 80%. With the new Paid Sick Leave Law that went into effect in July of 2015 and the new AB 1513 Law, things are not good especially if you are not in compliance.
The truth is most employers are never in compliance and in times past some got caught and paid a small to meaningful fine and then changed their ways. The problem today is that there are so many areas for employers to get fined concerning both employment law, and Cal-Osha Violations and these fines have increased so much it is just not wise any longer to play games with compliance.
Both Employment Law and Cal-OSHA enforcement have become more stringent in the last couple of years, and this is in addition to the increase in the amount of the these fines.
Let’s take a quick look at Cal-Osha for example. It is no longer enough to have a safety program that meets all eight of the Cal-Osha standards now you must be doing every aspect of your safety program, and if you are not you will be fined. And with fines increasing up to 80% this year that is not going to be fun in the event that you have an enforcement officer visit your job site.
On the other hand since the new Paid Sick Leave law went into effect the same can be true with employment law. Since the passage of the Paid Sick Leave Law every employer should now have an employee handbook even if you only have one employee.
How Can I protect my business, is a question you may be asking.
In today’s employment law and compliance world the best thing you can do is to have a current and properly written employee handbook as well as a safety program that not only meets the eight standards but also is written in a way that you can comply with. Once you have that you need to make sure that you enforce all of the policies that are in your employee handbook in equal and equitable manner to all employees. Along with that documentation is very important today. This would also include your company’s safety policies, you always want to document your walk-thrus and the hazards you find as well as the abatement of those hazards.
In addition to that you want to make sure that you are regularly doing your safety training, and have the current posters. The truth is compliance with both employment law and Cal-OSHA is very difficult but the good news is California Employers Services would love to show you how easy it can be to get your business in compliance and keep it there. We are very good at what we do, and we care.