Study guide · Law & Business · Safety
Safety Programs and Reporting: What You Write Down and Who You Tell
About 67 minutes · 6 sections
What this guide covers
Cal/OSHA does not wait for an accident to find you out of compliance. The written program, the code of safe practices, the tailgate meetings, the log — those are inspectable on an ordinary day, and not having them is its own violation with its own penalty. Then when something does happen, three separate clocks start. They run at different speeds and they go to different places. One call to Cal/OSHA measured in hours. One report to your insurer measured in days. One form into your injured employee's hands measured in working days. A fourth runs quietly alongside them with no recipient at all — the entry in your own log — and it is the one that gets forgotten. Miss the reporting and you have added a second violation on top of whatever the accident already exposed. This part of the exam is mostly about knowing which clock belongs to which event.
Key terms
- IIPP (Injury and Illness Prevention Program)
- The written safety program every California employer must have. It is not paperwork you produce after an incident — it has to exist, be in writing, and actually be running.
- Serious injury or illness
- The category of event that triggers the fast call to Cal/OSHA: inpatient hospitalization for something other than observation or testing, an amputation, loss of an eye, serious permanent disfigurement, or silicosis and silica-related lung cancer. Do not confuse it with "serious physical harm", which is the different term the serious-VIOLATION penalty turns on.
- Cal/OSHA Form 300
- The Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses. Form 300A is the annual summary you post; Form 301 is the individual incident report.
- Serious violation
- A Cal/OSHA violation where there is a realistic possibility that death or serious physical harm could result from the hazard the violation created. It carries a much higher penalty than a non-serious one.
The rules the exam tests
17 rules · 9 minInjury and Illness Prevention Program
You must establish, implement, and maintain a written IIPP.
Your IIPP must be effective, not just present, and it must be in writing. A written program that nobody follows does not satisfy the rule.
On the job
The regulation requires the program to be established, implemented AND maintained, so a written document that nobody runs does not satisfy it.
Exact wording
Every employer must establish, implement, and maintain an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program, and the Program must be in writing.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
Your IIPP must identify the person or persons with authority and responsibility for implementing it.
Saying everyone is responsible for safety does not identify a person with authority and responsibility for implementing the Injury and Illness Prevention Program. At a minimum the Program must also include: a system for ensuring employees comply with safe and healthy work practices; a system for communicating with employees in a form readily understandable by all affected employees, including provisions that encourage employees to report hazards without fear of reprisal; procedures for identifying and evaluating workplace hazards, including scheduled periodic inspections; a procedure to investigate occupational injury or occupational illness; methods for correcting unsafe or unhealthy conditions, work practices, and procedures in a timely manner based on the severity of the hazard; training and instruction; and employee access to the Program.
On the job
The eight elements are the checklist an inspector works from. A Program that reads well but names nobody responsible fails on the first element, and 'everyone is responsible for safety' is the answer that fails it.
Exact wording
An Injury and Illness Prevention Program must at a minimum identify the person or persons with authority and responsibility for implementing it; include a system for ensuring employees comply with safe and healthy work practices; include a system for communicating with employees in a form readily understandable by all affected employees, including provisions encouraging employees to report hazards without fear of reprisal; include procedures for identifying and evaluating workplace hazards, including scheduled periodic inspections; include a procedure to investigate occupational injury or occupational illness; include methods for correcting unsafe or unhealthy conditions, work practices, and procedures in a timely manner based on the severity of the hazard; provide training and instruction; and allow employee access to the Program.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
Clear the area first when an imminent hazard cannot be corrected on the spot.
The trigger is an imminent hazard that cannot be corrected immediately without endangering employees or property. Remove all exposed personnel from the area except the employees needed to correct the condition, and provide those employees the necessary safeguards.
On the job
The general rule is to correct hazards in a timely manner based on severity; this is the case where timely is not good enough and the area has to be cleared first.
Exact wording
Where an imminent hazard exists that cannot be immediately abated without endangering employees or property, an employer must remove all exposed personnel from the area except those necessary to correct the existing condition, and the employees kept back to correct it must be provided the necessary safeguards.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
Give an employee access to your IIPP within five business days of the request.
The right to see the Program also runs to a designated representative, and a recognized or certified collective bargaining agent automatically counts as one. Count the five days from when you receive the request; that is the outer limit, and the time, place, and manner must also be reasonable. If a copy is requested, provide one printed copy free of charge, unless the requester agrees to an electronic copy. You may instead satisfy the access duty by giving unobstructed access through a company server or website.
On the job
A Program the crew cannot see does not change behavior. Access in a reasonable time and place is what turns the document from a compliance artifact into something a worker can actually consult.
Exact wording
An employer must provide an employee or designated representative access to the Injury and Illness Prevention Program in a reasonable time, place, and manner, and in no event later than five business days after the request is received; when a copy is requested the employer must provide a printed copy unless the requester agrees to an electronic copy, and one printed copy must be provided free of charge — though an employer may instead satisfy that access duty by providing unobstructed access through a company server or website. A recognized or certified collective bargaining agent is automatically treated as a designated representative for this purpose.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
Under 10 employees, you may give safety instruction orally instead of in writing.
Oral instruction replaces the IIPP's written communication system, but only for an employer with fewer than 10 employees. Cover general safe work practices, and give each employee specific instruction on the hazards unique to that employee's job assignment.
On the job
The small-employer route is oral, not absent. Under ten employees you may instruct verbally — but the instruction still has to be specific to the hazards of the job, and the training documentation duty does not disappear with it.
Exact wording
An employer having fewer than 10 employees is permitted to communicate to and instruct employees orally in general safe work practices, with specific instructions on hazards unique to each employee's job assignment, instead of maintaining the Injury and Illness Prevention Program's written communication system.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
Under your IIPP, inspect whenever new equipment or a new process creates a new hazard.
Your IIPP carries three inspection triggers, and each inspection must identify and evaluate hazards. Inspect when you first establish the Program. Inspect whenever new substances, processes, procedures, or equipment introduced to the workplace represent a new occupational safety and health hazard. Inspect whenever you are made aware of a new or previously unrecognized hazard. Running the Program also creates records: keep records of the scheduled and periodic inspections, and documentation of the required safety and health training, generally at least one year, and each has its own required contents.
On the job
Three triggers, and the middle one is the one that gets missed. Inspections are due when the Program is set up, whenever new substances or processes arrive, and whenever the employer learns of a new hazard — so a new tool or a new subcontractor's material starts a duty.
Exact wording
Under an Injury and Illness Prevention Program, inspections to identify and evaluate hazards must be made when the Program is first established, whenever new substances, processes, procedures, or equipment introduced to the workplace represent a new occupational safety and health hazard, and whenever the employer is made aware of a new or previously unrecognized hazard. Running the Program also creates records: records of the scheduled and periodic inspections, and documentation of the required safety and health training, are generally to be kept for at least one year, and each has required contents of its own.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
You train again whenever a hire, an assignment, or a hazard is new.
Under your IIPP, provide training and instruction when you first establish the Program, to all new employees, and to all employees given new job assignments for which they have not already been trained. Train again whenever new substances, processes, procedures, or equipment brought into the workplace represent a new hazard, and whenever you are made aware of a new or previously unrecognized hazard. Supervisors must also familiarize themselves with the safety and health hazards to which the employees under their immediate direction and control may be exposed.
On the job
Training is tied to events rather than to a calendar, so a new hire, a new assignment, a new material and a newly discovered hazard each start the duty over.
Exact wording
Under an Injury and Illness Prevention Program, training and instruction must be provided when the Program is first established, to all new employees, to all employees given new job assignments for which training has not previously been received, whenever new substances, processes, procedures, or equipment are introduced to the workplace and represent a new hazard, whenever the employer is made aware of a new or previously unrecognized hazard, and for supervisors to familiarize themselves with the safety and health hazards to which the employees under their immediate direction and control may be exposed.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
On construction work, you must adopt a written besides your IIPP.
A Code of Safe Practices is a written set of safe-work rules covering your own operations. It does not replace the Injury and Illness Prevention Program required of employers generally — on construction work, every employer keeps both documents.
On the job
Construction gets a second document on top of the Program, and the two are not interchangeable. The Code of Safe Practices is operations-specific: it describes how THIS employer's work is done safely, which is why a generic booklet does not satisfy it.
Exact wording
On construction work, every employer must adopt a written Code of Safe Practices relating to the employer's operations, in addition to the Injury and Illness Prevention Program required of employers generally.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1509 ↗
Post your Code of Safe Practices at each job site office or hand it to supervisors.
Posted means a conspicuous location at each job site office. Provided means each supervisory employee has a copy of the Code of Safe Practices and keeps it readily available. Either route satisfies the rule for a construction employer.
On the job
Posting or distribution is what makes the Code operative. The rule gives two routes — a conspicuous location at each job site office, or into the hands of supervisory employees — because on a job with no office the first route does not exist.
Exact wording
A construction employer's Code of Safe Practices must be posted at a conspicuous location at each job site office, or be provided to each supervisory employee who must have it readily available.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1509 ↗
On construction work, you hold periodic supervisor meetings under the direction of management.
The periodic supervisory meetings must cover safety problems and accidents that have occurred. Each supervisor must also conduct a toolbox or tailgate safety meeting, or the equivalent, with the crew at least every 10 working days to emphasize safety.
On the job
Periodic supervisory meetings are where the Code stops being a document. Held under the direction of management is the load-bearing phrase: it is not a toolbox talk delegated to the crew, it is supervisors accounting for safety problems and accidents.
Exact wording
On construction work, periodic meetings of supervisory employees must be held under the direction of management to discuss safety problems and accidents that have occurred, and supervisory employees must conduct toolbox or tailgate safety meetings, or the equivalent, with their crews at least every 10 working days to emphasize safety.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1509 ↗
Tell all your employees they have the right to see the IIPP.
You must tell every employee the procedure for getting access to the IIPP, not just that the right exists. You do this without any request. A complete written Program is not enough if your crew never hears about the right.
On the job
This duty runs on its own, without any request. A contractor who keeps a compliant written Program and answers every request within five business days has still not met it if the workforce was never told the right exists.
Exact wording
An employer must communicate the right to access the Injury and Illness Prevention Program, and the procedure for accessing it, to all employees.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
Licensed construction employers keep implementation records only for each employee's job hazards.
This applies to an employer in the construction industry required to be licensed under the Contractors State License Law. You may also use employee training records provided to you in connection with an occupational safety and health training program approved by the Division.
On the job
This is the one relief in the Program regulation written for licensed construction contractors specifically. It narrows the implementation records to the hazards of each employee's own job duties, and it lets training records the employer received from a Division-approved program do work the employer would otherwise have to document itself.
Exact wording
An employer in the construction industry required to be licensed under the Contractors State License Law may use records relating to employee training provided to the employer in connection with an occupational safety and health training program approved by the Division, and is only required to keep records of those steps taken to implement and maintain the Program with respect to hazards specific to the employee's job duties.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
Your inspection record must name who inspected, what was unsafe, and what you corrected.
Your IIPP requires scheduled and periodic inspections, and each one needs a record. Name the person or persons who conducted the inspection, list the unsafe conditions and work practices identified, and record the action taken to correct them.
On the job
A log reading “jobsite walk 5/1, J. Smith” meets none of these. The record has to carry what was found and what was done about it, which is also the abatement proof a contractor most wants after a later injury.
Exact wording
Records of the scheduled and periodic inspections required by an Injury and Illness Prevention Program must include the person or persons conducting the inspection, the unsafe conditions and work practices that have been identified, and the action taken to correct those identified unsafe conditions and work practices.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
Your safety training records must show each employee's name, training dates, types, and providers.
The documentation covers the safety and health training required by subsection (a)(7) of the Injury and Illness Prevention Program standard. For each employee, record the name or other identifier, the training dates, the type or types of training, and the training providers. The exceptions in that subsection and its construction-industry note still apply.
On the job
Four data points per employee. The universal practice — a toolbox-talk sign-in sheet with names and a date — supplies two of them, so a contractor who keeps every sheet for the full year can still be cited for deficient documentation. Adding the topic and who delivered it costs one line.
Exact wording
Documentation of the safety and health training required by subsection (a)(7) of the Injury and Illness Prevention Program standard must include, for each employee, the employee name or other identifier, training dates, the type or types of training, and the training providers — subject to the exceptions in that subsection and to its construction-industry note.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
With fewer than 20 employees, you may qualify to keep only three written IIPP records.
You must still put in writing who has authority and responsibility for implementing the IIPP, the scheduled periodic inspections that identify unsafe conditions and work practices, and training and instruction. Fewer than 20 employees qualifies you by one of two routes only: your industry is not on the high-hazard list the Department of Industrial Relations designates and your workers' compensation experience modification rate is 1.1 or less, or your industry is on the low-hazard list the Department designates.
On the job
This is a documentation relief, not a relief from the Program: the Program itself must still exist and be in writing. It is also a different threshold from the under-10 rule — under 10 changes how you COMMUNICATE (orally rather than through a written system), under 20 changes how much you WRITE DOWN about running it. Both conditions on the first route must hold, and the experience modification rate is a number a contractor can look up on their own workers' compensation policy.
Exact wording
An employer with fewer than 20 employees may limit written documentation of the Injury and Illness Prevention Program to three things — written documentation of the identity of the person or persons with authority and responsibility for implementing the Program, of the scheduled periodic inspections to identify unsafe conditions and work practices, and of training and instruction — but only by one of two routes: being in an industry NOT on a designated list of high-hazard industries established by the Department of Industrial Relations while carrying a workers' compensation experience modification rate of 1.1 or less, or being in an industry on a designated list of low-hazard industries established by the Department.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
With under 10 employees, you may keep inspection records only until the hazard is corrected.
Having fewer than 10 employees makes the shorter retention an option you elect, not an automatic exemption. The option covers the records of the scheduled periodic inspections your IIPP requires. Correcting the hazard ends the duty to keep that record.
On the job
Much of this audience is under ten employees, and for them the one-year retention is optional. Note what the exception does NOT touch: the three content items are still required while the record exists, and correcting the hazard is what ends the duty.
Exact wording
An employer with fewer than 10 employees may elect to maintain the inspection records only until the hazard is corrected.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
If you have fewer than 10 employees, a log of instructions counts as training documentation.
Log the instructions you gave each employee on hazards unique to that employee's job assignment, when first hired or when assigned new duties. With fewer than 10 employees, that log substantially complies with the training documentation provision.
On the job
The small-shop route, and it is genuinely lighter: a log of instructions rather than four data points per employee per session. The trigger is the two moments that matter — first hire, and assignment to new duties.
Exact wording
An employer with fewer than 10 employees can substantially comply with the training documentation provision by maintaining a log of instructions provided to the employee with respect to the hazards unique to the employee's job assignment when first hired or assigned new duties.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3203 ↗
Take away
19 rules · 11 minReporting injuries
You must report a serious injury, illness, or death to Cal/OSHA within 8 hours.
Immediately means as soon as practically possible, and no longer than 8 hours after you know — or with diligent inquiry would have known — of an employee's death or serious injury or illness in a place of employment or in connection with any employment. Any person you authorize may make the call to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and this report is in addition to any other report required by law.
On the job
The clock runs from when the employer would have known with diligent inquiry, not only from actual knowledge, so not asking does not extend it.
Exact wording
Every employer must report immediately to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health any serious injury or illness, or death, of an employee occurring in a place of employment or in connection with any employment; immediately means as soon as practically possible but not longer than 8 hours after the employer knows, or with diligent inquiry would have known, of the death or serious injury or illness. The report may be made by any person the employer authorizes to make it, and it is in addition to any other report required by law.
Serious injury or illness means an inpatient hospital stay, amputation, lost eye, or disfigurement.
A serious injury or illness must occur in a place of employment or in connection with any employment. A hospital stay only for medical observation or diagnostic testing does not qualify. Silicosis, silica-related lung cancer, and any serious degree of permanent disfigurement do qualify. Injury, illness, or death from an accident on a public street or highway is excluded, unless the accident occurred in a construction zone.
On the job
This is the definition the 8-hour call turns on, so it decides whether the fastest duty in the section applies at all. Note the two traps: a hospital stay purely for observation or testing is outside it, and a highway accident is outside it unless it happened in a construction zone.
Exact wording
Serious injury or illness means any injury or illness occurring in a place of employment or in connection with any employment that requires inpatient hospitalization for other than medical observation or diagnostic testing, or in which an employee suffers an amputation, the loss of an eye, or any serious degree of permanent disfigurement; it includes silicosis and silica-related lung cancer. It does not include an injury, illness or death caused by an accident on a public street or highway, unless the accident occurred in a construction zone.
You may report a serious injury within 24 hours only if you demonstrate exigent circumstances.
Exigent circumstances are conditions that prevented an earlier report, and you carry the burden of demonstrating them. If you can demonstrate them, you may report a serious injury, illness, or death to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health no longer than 24 hours after the incident.
On the job
Exigent circumstances buy time, and the burden is on the employer to DEMONSTRATE them. This is not a grace period you elect; it is a defense you have to be able to make afterwards, which means writing down what prevented the report at the time.
Exact wording
An employer that can demonstrate exigent circumstances exist may make the report of a serious injury, illness, or death to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health no longer than 24 hours after the incident.
File a complete injury report within five days after you learn of a lost-time injury.
Lost time means the employee is off beyond the date of the injury or illness. Medical treatment beyond triggers the report on its own. Every employer files the complete report with the Department of Industrial Relations, or with your insurer if you are an insured employer. The five days run from when you obtain knowledge. Report each employee injury or illness that has, or is alleged to have, arisen out of and in the course of employment: a disputed claim still counts once it meets either threshold.
On the job
Lost time beyond the day of injury is the trigger, and it is lower than most contractors assume. A worker sent home who does not work the following day is inside it; one who leaves at noon and is back the next morning is not. The reporting decision is made from the calendar, not from how serious the injury looked.
Exact wording
Every employer must file a complete report of every occupational injury or occupational illness of an employee that results in lost time beyond the date of the injury or illness, or that requires medical treatment beyond first aid, with the Department of Industrial Relations or, if an insured employer, with the insurer, within five days after the employer obtains knowledge of the injury or illness. The report is owed for each injury and illness which has, or is alleged to have, arisen out of and in the course of employment, so a disputed claim is still reported where the lost-time or medical-treatment threshold is met.
File an amended report when a reported injury later results in the employee's death.
Filing the first report does not cover a later death. When the employee dies from the injury or illness you reported, file an amended report indicating the death within five days after you are notified or learn of it.
On the job
The original report does not discharge the duty: an amended report indicating the death is separately due within five days of learning of it. Employers who assume the first report covers it leave a fatality unreported.
Exact wording
When an employer has filed a report of an occupational injury or illness and the employee subsequently dies as a result of it, the employer must file an amended report indicating the death within five days after the employer is notified or learns of the death.
Deliver the claim form within one working day of notice or knowledge of the injury.
Two triggers start the clock: lost time beyond the employee's work shift at the time of injury, or medical treatment beyond first aid — first aid in the claim-form sense. Give the injured employee, or the dependents if the employee died, both the claim form and the notice of potential eligibility for benefits, personally or by first-class mail.
On the job
One working day is short, and the clock starts on notice OR knowledge — not on a formal report. A supervisor who watched the injury happen has given the employer knowledge, whether or not anyone filled anything in.
Exact wording
Within one working day of receiving notice or knowledge of an injury that results in lost time beyond the employee's work shift at the time of injury, or that results in medical treatment beyond first aid, the employer must provide the injured employee — or, in the case of death, the dependents — with a claim form and a notice of potential eligibility for benefits, personally or by first-class mail.
For the claim-form duty, one-time minor treatment is first aid even when a physician gives it.
For the employer's duty to provide a workers' compensation claim form, first aid means any one-time treatment of minor scratches, cuts, burns, splinters, or another minor industrial injury that does not ordinarily require medical care, plus any follow-up visit just to observe it. Treatment by a physician or registered professional personnel still counts as first aid. A serious exposure to a hazardous substance is not a minor industrial injury.
On the job
Whether care stayed at first aid decides ONE of the two triggers for the claim-form duty; the other is lost time beyond the work shift. So the statute defines first aid itself rather than leaving it to the employer's judgment. And it refuses to let a doctor's involvement alone push an injury past it.
Exact wording
For the employer's duty to provide a workers' compensation claim form, first aid means any one-time treatment and any follow-up visit for the purpose of observation of minor scratches, cuts, burns, splinters, or other minor industrial injury that does not ordinarily require medical care, and treatment counts as first aid even when it is provided by a physician or registered professional personnel; a serious exposure to a hazardous substance is not a minor industrial injury.
Give each new employee the written workers' compensation notice by the first pay period's end.
Every employer subject to the workers' compensation provisions must give the written notice to each new employee, either at the time of hire or by the end of the first pay period. The notice must be easily understandable and available in both English and Spanish, and it carries the information the workers' compensation posting statute requires. It must also explain generally how to obtain appropriate medical care for a job injury and the role and function of the primary treating physician, and include a form the employee may use as an optional way to name a personal physician or personal chiropractor.
On the job
The new-hire notice is defined by reference to the posted notice's information, so the two documents carry the same baseline and are owed on different occasions — one continuously on the wall, one to each new hire.
Exact wording
Every employer subject to the workers' compensation provisions must give every new employee written notice of the information the workers' compensation posting statute requires either at the time the employee is hired or by the end of the first pay period, and the notice must be easily understandable and available in both English and Spanish. In addition to that baseline, the notice must explain generally how to obtain appropriate medical care for a job injury and the role and function of the primary treating physician, and must include a form the employee may use as an optional way to name a personal physician or personal chiropractor.
Post the workers' compensation carrier notice where employees can easily read it during the workday.
If you are subject to the workers' compensation provisions, post a notice naming your current workers' compensation insurance carrier — or stating you are self-insured, where appropriate — and naming who is responsible for claims adjustment. Keep it posted in a conspicuous location employees frequent.
On the job
This is the notice that tells an injured worker who actually carries the risk and who to deal with. It is a posting duty that runs continuously, not something produced after an injury.
Exact wording
Every employer subject to the workers' compensation provisions must post and keep posted, in a conspicuous location frequented by employees and where it may be easily read during the hours of the workday, a notice stating the name of the employer's current workers' compensation insurance carrier or, where appropriate, that the employer is self-insured, and stating who is responsible for claims adjustment.
You commit a misdemeanor if you do not keep the workers' compensation carrier notice conspicuously posted.
A workers' compensation carrier notice that is not conspicuously posted is also prima facie evidence that you are uninsured. That means it stands as proof of no coverage unless you show otherwise, so the burden starts on your side.
On the job
The posting failure does not merely risk a citation — it shifts the starting position on the question a contractor least wants raised, because the missing notice is itself evidence of being uninsured.
Exact wording
Failure to keep the workers' compensation carrier notice conspicuously posted is a misdemeanor and is prima facie evidence that the employer is uninsured.
Your employee may choose a personal physician if you never gave the workers' compensation notice.
The employee's injury must occur during the time you failed to give the notice the workers' compensation posting rules require. The employee may then be treated by a personal physician with nothing further to show.
On the job
Control over who treats an injured worker is one of the few levers an employer has on claim cost, and a missing notice hands it to the employee automatically — no hearing, no finding of prejudice.
Exact wording
An employer's failure to provide the workers' compensation notice required by the posting section automatically permits the employee to be treated by their personal physician for an injury occurring during that failure.
The administrative director prescribes the claim form and the potential-eligibility notice after consulting the Commission.
Before prescribing the form and content of the claim form and of the notice of potential eligibility for benefits — the notice telling an injured employee that benefits may be available — the administrative director must consult the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation. That notice must be easily understandable and available in both English and Spanish.
On the job
The documents are prescribed rather than drafted in-house, so the duty is to hand over the official paperwork. The language requirement here attaches to the notice of potential eligibility, which is the document the statute names in that sentence.
Exact wording
The form and content of both the workers' compensation claim form and the notice of potential eligibility for benefits are prescribed by the administrative director after consultation with the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation, and the notice must be easily understandable and available in both English and Spanish.
To be predesignated, a personal physician must have previously directed the employee's treatment.
Predesignation means the employee names a physician in advance to treat a work injury. That physician must be the employee's regular physician and surgeon licensed under Chapter 5 of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code, must also be the employee's primary care physician, must have previously directed the employee's medical treatment, must retain the employee's medical records and history, and must agree to be predesignated. A medical group qualifies instead, but only if it is a single corporation or partnership of licensed doctors of medicine or osteopathy operating an integrated multispecialty group that provides comprehensive medical services predominantly for nonoccupational illnesses and injuries.
On the job
The exam tests who can be a predesignated physician: the employee's own primary care doctor who agrees, or a qualifying medical group.
Exact wording
For the right to predesignate a personal physician, a personal physician is the employee's regular physician and surgeon licensed under Chapter 5 of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code, who is also the employee's primary care physician, has previously directed the employee's medical treatment, retains the employee's medical records and history, and agrees to be predesignated. A medical group qualifies if it is a single corporation or partnership of licensed doctors of medicine or osteopathy operating an integrated multispecialty group that provides comprehensive medical services predominantly for nonoccupational illnesses and injuries.
An employee predesignates a personal physician only by notifying the employer in writing before the injury.
Predesignation means the employee names a qualifying personal physician who then treats the employee from the date of injury. Two conditions both apply: written notice to the employer, before the date of injury, that the employee has a personal physician; and health care coverage for nonoccupational injuries or illnesses on the date of injury, in a plan, policy, or fund of the kind the statute specifies. If either condition is missing, the predesignation right does not arise.
On the job
Two conditions, both before the injury: written notice to the employer and nonoccupational coverage. Without them the predesignation right does not arise.
Exact wording
The right to be treated from the date of injury by a qualifying personal physician arises only where the employee notified the employer in writing before the date of injury that the employee has a personal physician, and the employee has health care coverage for nonoccupational injuries or illnesses on the date of injury in a plan, policy, or fund of the kind the statute specifies.
You have five working days to provide a different physician after the employee asks.
An employee may request the one change of physician at any time, so the clock runs from the request, not the injury. You or your insurance carrier must provide the alternative physician — or a chiropractor or acupuncturist if the employee asks — within five working days.
On the job
This is a fourth employer clock in the injury sequence and the shortest one measured in working days: five working days from the request, not from the injury. The employee controls when it starts, so it can land long after the claim paperwork is done.
Exact wording
If an employee so requests, the employer must tender the employee one change of physician, and the employee may request that one-time change at any time. The maximum time permitted for the employer or insurance carrier to provide an alternative physician — or, if the employee requests, a chiropractor or an acupuncturist — is five working days from the date of the request.
Include a personal physician naming form in every new-hire workers' compensation notice.
The naming form in the new-hire notice is optional for the employee. The employee may use it to name a personal physician as defined by Labor Code section 4600, or a personal chiropractor as defined by Labor Code section 4601.
On the job
Both terms are statutory rather than ordinary English, and predesignation only works if the person named qualifies. Telling a new hire that any doctor may be named produces predesignations that do not hold, and the employee discovers that at the worst possible moment.
Exact wording
The new-hire workers' compensation notice must include a form the employee may use as an optional method of naming the employee's 'personal physician' as defined by Labor Code section 4600, or 'personal chiropractor' as defined by Labor Code section 4601.
A serious exposure is any exposure that could realistically cause death or serious physical harm later.
A serious exposure must be an employee's exposure to a hazardous substance. It counts whether it came from an incident, an accident, an emergency, or exposure over time. The degree or amount must be enough to create a realistic possibility that death or serious physical harm in the future could result from the actual hazard the exposure created.
On the job
The test is a realistic possibility of future harm, which is a legal standard rather than a foreman's impression at the eyewash station. A splash that is flushed and forgotten can still meet it, and the reporting duty turns on this definition rather than on whether anyone looked hurt at the end of the shift.
Exact wording
'Serious exposure' means any exposure of an employee to a hazardous substance, whether from an incident, accident, emergency, or exposure over time, in a degree or amount sufficient to create a realistic possibility that death or serious physical harm in the future could result from the actual hazard created by the exposure.
When the employee files the claim form with you, the filing deadlines stop running.
Tolling means suspended, not running: the time limits in Labor Code sections 5405 and 5406 are paused for injuries occurring on or after January 1, 1994. They stay paused until you deny the claim or the injury becomes presumptively compensable under section 5402.
On the job
The limitation clock stops once the form is filed. A contractor who is uninsured or administering its own claims, and who assumes the one-year period simply keeps running, can sit on a claim believing it will lapse. It will not — it is suspended until the claim is denied or becomes presumptively compensable.
Exact wording
Filing the claim form with the employer tolls the time limitations set out in Labor Code sections 5405 and 5406, for injuries occurring on or after January 1, 1994, until the claim is denied by the employer or the injury becomes presumptively compensable under section 5402.
A claim form counts as filed when the employee mails it or delivers it personally.
For this rule, a claim form counts as filed when it is personally delivered to the employer or mailed to the employer by first-class or certified mail. Until it is filed with the employer, the employee is not entitled to late payment supplements under Labor Code section 4650(d) and may not request a medical evaluation under section 4060, 4061 or 4062.
On the job
For the subdivision (d) purposes — tolling and the employee's entitlement to late-payment supplements or a medical evaluation — filing is measured at personal delivery or mailing. Under subdivision (c) the general rule is delivery or receipt, so the two measures can fall on different days.
Exact wording
For purposes of that subdivision a claim form is deemed filed when it is personally delivered to the employer or mailed to the employer by first-class or certified mail; the claim form must be filed with the employer before the injured employee is entitled to late payment supplements under Labor Code section 4650(d), or may request a medical evaluation under section 4060, 4061 or 4062.
Take away
27 rules · 17 minInjury and illness records
You do not have to keep Cal/OSHA injury and illness records with 10 or fewer employees.
Count the whole company at its peak during the last calendar year, not establishment by establishment. If that peak was over 10, keep the records. Keep them too if OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics informs you in writing.
On the job
Most contractors are small enough to fall inside this, so the recordkeeping lesson starts with whether it reaches you at all. Peak company-wide employment is the test — one week over ten last year takes the SIZE exemption away for the whole year — after that only the partially exempt industry classification under section 14300.2 can keep you out.
Exact wording
A company that had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year does not need to keep the Cal/OSHA injury and illness records, unless OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics informs it in writing that it must. The exemption is measured on the number of employees in the ENTIRE COMPANY at its peak during the last calendar year, not establishment by establishment.
You still report injuries to the state even if size exempts you from Form 300.
File reports of occupational injuries and illnesses with the Division of Labor Statistics and Research. Report any workplace incident resulting in serious injury or illness, or death, immediately to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Both duties stand.
On the job
The size exemption is about the LOG, not about telling anyone. Reading it as "we are too small to have safety paperwork" is how a small employer misses the 8-hour call.
Exact wording
An employer partially exempt from Cal/OSHA recordkeeping because of size must still file reports of occupational injuries and illnesses with the Division of Labor Statistics and Research, and must still immediately report any workplace incident resulting in serious injury or illness, or death, to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
You keep your Cal/OSHA injury and illness records on Forms 300, 300A, and 301.
Every employer required to keep Cal/OSHA injury and illness records must use Forms 300, 300A, and 301, or equivalent forms, for recordable injuries and illnesses. Form 300 is the Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, Form 300A is the Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, and Form 301 is the Injury and Illness Incident Report.
On the job
The three forms do different jobs: 300 is the running log, 301 is the individual incident record, and 300A is the annual summary. 'Or equivalent' is real, but an equivalent has to carry the same information — a spreadsheet with fewer columns is not one.
Exact wording
An employer that is required to keep Cal/OSHA injury and illness records must use Cal/OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301, or equivalent forms, for recordable injuries and illnesses: Form 300 is the Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, Form 300A is the Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, and Form 301 is the Injury and Illness Incident Report.
In a privacy concern case, keep the employee's name off the Cal/OSHA Form 300.
A privacy concern case is one of these, and no others: an injury or illness to an intimate body part or the reproductive system; one resulting from a sexual assault; mental illnesses; HIV infection, hepatitis, or tuberculosis; needlestick injuries and cuts from sharp objects contaminated with another person's blood or other potentially infectious material; and other illnesses where the employee independently and voluntarily asks that the name be left off the log. In the name space on the Cal/OSHA Form 300 you enter "privacy case" instead. Keep a separate, confidential list of the case numbers and employee names, so the cases can be updated and the government given the information on request. "Contaminated" carries the meaning the recordkeeping article gives it.
On the job
Entry-time suppression is the first half of the privacy regime; disclosure-time redaction is the second. A name that never went on the log is protected in the employee and union channel, which carries no redaction duty. The list is closed, so a sprained ankle cannot be made a privacy case.
Exact wording
For a privacy concern case the employer may not enter the employee's name on the Cal/OSHA Form 300; it enters 'privacy case' in the name space and keeps a separate, confidential list of the case numbers and employee names so the cases can be updated and the government given the information on request. The privacy concern cases are a closed list: an injury or illness to an intimate body part or the reproductive system; one resulting from a sexual assault; mental illnesses; HIV infection, hepatitis, or tuberculosis; needlestick injuries and cuts from sharp objects contaminated with another person's blood or other potentially infectious material; and other illnesses where the employee independently and voluntarily asks that the name be left off the log. No other case may be classified as a privacy concern case for purposes of the recordkeeping article; 'contaminated' takes the article's own definitions.
Enter each recordable injury or illness on Forms 300 and 301 within seven calendar days.
The seven-day clock starts when you receive information that a recordable injury or illness occurred, not on the injury date. Weekends and holidays count. Both the Form 300 log and the Form 301 Incident Report need the entry.
On the job
It is measured in calendar days rather than working days, and it runs from receiving the information rather than from the date of the injury, so a case a crew reports late still starts the clock when the office learns of it.
Exact wording
Each recordable injury or illness must be entered on the Cal/OSHA Form 300 and the Cal/OSHA Form 301 Incident Report within seven calendar days of receiving information that a recordable injury or illness has occurred.
You record an injury or illness only if the case is new and work-related.
A case is not new if it is a recurrence of a condition you already recorded. The case must also meet one or more of the recording criteria in the recordkeeping article. If any one of the three conditions fails, you do not record the case.
On the job
Two gates come before any recording test. A recurrence of a condition already recorded is not a new case, and a condition that is not work-related never reaches the recording criteria at all.
Exact wording
An injury or illness is recordable for Cal/OSHA purposes only if it is a new, work-related case that also meets one or more of the recording criteria in the recordkeeping article.
Any one general recording criterion makes a case recordable. A physician-diagnosed significant injury also counts.
The general recording criteria are death, days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond , and loss of consciousness. A significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional is also recordable, even when it caused none of those results.
On the job
Medical treatment beyond first aid is only ONE of these routes. A carpenter given an ice pack and a clinic note restricting overhead lifting for a week received first aid — but the case is recordable anyway, by the restricted-work route. Running the closed first-aid list and stopping there is how a recordable case goes unrecorded.
Exact wording
An injury or illness meets the Cal/OSHA general recording criteria, and is therefore recordable, if it results in death, days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness. A case also meets the general recording criteria if it involves a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional, even if it does not result in death, days away from work, restricted work or job transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness.
You do not record restricted work or a job transfer imposed only on the injury day.
Restricted work keeps the employee from one or more routine job functions, and a recommended restriction is recordable only if it affects one or more of those functions. You keep the case off the log only when it involves no death and no days away from work; the day an illness began counts the same as the day an injury occurred. On any later day, assigning the employee to a job other than their regular job for even part of a day counts as a transfer to another job. Record job transfers and restricted work in the same box on the Cal/OSHA Form 300.
On the job
Two triggers the exam pairs: a same-day-only restriction does not make a case recordable, while a part-day reassignment on a later day is a recordable transfer. The count and the recordability both start the day after.
Exact wording
For a work-related injury or illness that does not involve death or days away from work, restricted work or a job transfer imposed only for the day on which the injury occurred or the illness began is not recorded. Assigning an injured or ill employee to a job other than their regular job for even part of a day counts as a transfer to another job, but not on the day of the injury or onset; job transfers and restricted work are recorded in the same box on the Form 300, and a recommended restriction is recordable only if it affects one or more of the employee's routine job functions.
For Cal/OSHA recordkeeping, first aid means the fourteen treatments the regulation lists and nothing else.
The recordkeeping regulation lists these fourteen first-aid treatments: nonprescription medication at nonprescription strength; tetanus immunizations; cleaning, flushing or soaking wounds on the surface of the skin; wound coverings such as bandages, gauze pads, butterfly bandages or Steri-Strips; hot or cold therapy; any non-rigid support such as elastic bandages, wraps or non-rigid back belts; temporary immobilization devices used while transporting an accident victim, such as splints, slings, neck collars or backboards; drilling a fingernail or toenail to relieve pressure, or draining fluid from a blister; eye patches; removing foreign bodies from the eye using only irrigation or a cotton swab; removing splinters or foreign material from areas other than the eye by irrigation, tweezers, cotton swabs or other simple means; finger guards; massages; and drinking fluids for relief of heat stress. The regulation states that this is a complete list of all treatments considered first aid.
On the job
This is a different test from the one that governs the workers' compensation claim form, and using the wrong one is how a recordable case goes unrecorded. Because the list is closed, a treatment that is not on it is medical treatment — and the two items most easily forgotten, splinting an injury for transport and flushing an eye, are on the list.
Exact wording
For Cal/OSHA recordkeeping, first aid means only the fourteen treatments listed in the recordkeeping regulation: using a nonprescription medication at nonprescription strength; administering tetanus immunizations; cleaning, flushing or soaking wounds on the surface of the skin; using wound coverings such as bandages, gauze pads, butterfly bandages or Steri-Strips; using hot or cold therapy; using any non-rigid means of support such as elastic bandages, wraps or non-rigid back belts; using temporary immobilization devices while transporting an accident victim, such as splints, slings, neck collars or backboards; drilling a fingernail or toenail to relieve pressure, or draining fluid from a blister; using eye patches; removing foreign bodies from the eye using only irrigation or a cotton swab; removing splinters or foreign material from areas other than the eye by irrigation, tweezers, cotton swabs or other simple means; using finger guards; using massages; and drinking fluids for relief of heat stress. The regulation states that this is a complete list of all treatments considered first aid.
For Cal/OSHA records, prescription-strength medication, other vaccines, sutures, rigid supports and physical therapy are medical treatment.
For Cal/OSHA recordkeeping, medical treatment is care of a patient that goes beyond the first-aid list, and the regulation draws all five lines inside that list. A nonprescription medication is first aid at nonprescription strength, but if that medication comes in both prescription and non-prescription form and a physician or other licensed health care professional recommends using it at prescription strength, that is medical treatment. Tetanus immunizations are first aid, but other immunizations such as Hepatitis B vaccine or rabies vaccine are medical treatment. Butterfly bandages and Steri-Strips are first aid, but other wound closing devices such as sutures or staples are medical treatment. Non-rigid support is first aid, but devices with rigid stays or other systems designed to immobilize parts of the body are medical treatment. Massages are first aid, but physical therapy or chiropractic treatment is medical treatment.
On the job
Each pair looks like one treatment to the person providing it, and the difference decides whether the case goes on the Form 300. The regulation draws every one of these lines inside the list itself.
Exact wording
Five treatments on the Cal/OSHA recordkeeping first-aid list carry a look-alike that is medical treatment instead: a nonprescription medication is first aid at nonprescription strength, but for medications available in both prescription and non-prescription form a recommendation by a physician or other licensed health care professional to use it at prescription strength is medical treatment; tetanus immunizations are first aid, but other immunizations such as Hepatitis B vaccine or rabies vaccine are medical treatment; butterfly bandages and Steri-Strips are first aid, but other wound closing devices such as sutures or staples are medical treatment; non-rigid support is first aid, but devices with rigid stays or other systems designed to immobilize parts of the body are medical treatment; and massages are first aid, but physical therapy or chiropractic treatment is medical treatment.
Medical treatment means managing and caring for a patient to combat disease or disorder.
For Cal/OSHA recordkeeping, medical treatment does not include a visit to a physician or other licensed health care professional solely for observation or counseling. It does not include diagnostic procedures such as x-rays and blood tests, including prescription medications administered solely for diagnostic purposes. It does not include first aid as the recordkeeping regulation defines it.
On the job
The closed first-aid list tells a contractor what sits below the line; this states the line itself. A diagnostic procedure is excluded whatever it shows, and a visit that produces only advice is not medical treatment either — even though a clinic was involved.
Exact wording
For Cal/OSHA recordkeeping, medical treatment means the management and care of a patient to combat disease or disorder. It does not include a visit to a physician or other licensed health care professional solely for observation or counseling, the conduct of diagnostic procedures such as x-rays and blood tests — including the administration of prescription medications used solely for diagnostic purposes — or first aid as the recordkeeping regulation defines it.
Who gives the treatment never decides first aid. Record a recommended medical treatment even if refused.
The treatments on the Cal/OSHA recordkeeping first-aid list stay first aid even when a physician or other licensed health care professional provides them. Treatment beyond that list is medical treatment even when someone who is not one of those professionals provides it. When such a professional recommends medical treatment, you must record the case even if the injured or ill employee does not follow that recommendation.
On the job
Both halves defeat the same instinct — reading the clinic's or the employee's behavior as the test. A worker told to have stitches who refuses them still produces a recordable case, because the recommendation is what the regulation measures.
Exact wording
For Cal/OSHA recordkeeping, who provides the treatment never decides whether it was first aid: the listed treatments stay first aid even when a physician or other licensed health care professional gives them, and treatment beyond the list is medical treatment even when it is given by someone who is not one. Where a physician or other licensed health care professional recommends medical treatment, the employer must record the case even if the injured or ill employee does not follow that recommendation.
Review your Cal/OSHA Form 300 at the end of each calendar year.
Correct any deficiencies you find, because the Form 300 entries must be complete and accurate. Then create an annual summary of the recorded injuries and illnesses on the Cal/OSHA Form 300A, certify it, and post it. Only a company executive may certify: an owner where the company is a sole proprietorship or partnership, an officer of the corporation, the highest ranking company official working at the establishment, or that official's immediate supervisor. That executive certifies having examined the Form 300 and, based on knowledge of the process by which the information was recorded, reasonably believes the annual summary is correct and complete.
On the job
The year-end review is a separate duty from keeping the log, and it is where errors get caught while they can still be fixed. Verifying and correcting before the summary is drawn is what stops a year of small logging mistakes from being certified as accurate.
Exact wording
At the end of each calendar year an employer must review the Cal/OSHA Form 300 to verify the entries are complete and accurate and correct any deficiencies, create an annual summary of the recorded injuries and illnesses on the Cal/OSHA Form 300A, certify the annual summary, and post it. The certification must be made by a company executive — an owner of the company where it is a sole proprietorship or partnership, an officer of the corporation, the highest ranking company official working at the establishment, or that official's immediate supervisor — who certifies that they have examined the Form 300 and reasonably believe, based on their knowledge of the process by which the information was recorded, that the annual summary is correct and complete.
Post your annual injury and illness summary by February 1 at each establishment.
The annual summary is Form 300A for the year the records cover. Post it at each establishment no later than February 1 of the following year, in a conspicuous place or places where you customarily post employee notices. Keep it up until April 30: not altered, not defaced, not covered by other material. Any employee who received pay during the February-through-April posting period but does not normally report at least weekly to that posting location must be handed or mailed a copy.
On the job
Posting on one office wall does not reach a workforce that is rarely at that office, which is the ordinary shape of a construction payroll. A contractor running work out of more than one office posts at each of them, not once for the company.
Exact wording
The Cal/OSHA annual summary of work-related injuries and illnesses must be posted no later than February 1 of the year following the year the records cover, in each establishment, in a conspicuous place or places where notices to employees are customarily posted, and the posting must be kept in place until April 30 and not altered, defaced, or covered by other material. An employee who received pay during the February-through-April posting period but does not normally report at least weekly to the location where the summary is posted must be presented with, or mailed, a copy.
You record workers on your payroll and off-payroll workers you supervise day to day.
Your payroll includes labor, executive, hourly, salary, part-time, seasonal, and migrant workers alike. If you are required to keep Cal/OSHA injury and illness records, record their recordable injuries and illnesses. Off-payroll workers count only when you supervise them on a day-to-day basis. In a sole proprietorship or partnership, the owner or partners are not employees for recordkeeping.
On the job
Construction runs on labor that is not on the contractor's own payroll. An employer who records only its payroll misses every agency or day labourer it directs day to day on the job.
Exact wording
An employer required to keep Cal/OSHA injury and illness records must record the recordable injuries and illnesses of all employees on its payroll, whether they are labor, executive, hourly, salary, part-time, seasonal, or migrant workers, and must also record those of employees who are not on its payroll if the employer supervises those employees on a day-to-day basis. Where the establishment is organized as a sole proprietorship or partnership, the owner or partners are not considered employees for recordkeeping purposes.
Total each Form 300 column on the Form 300A even when every total is zero.
Enter on the Form 300A the calendar year covered, the company name, the establishment name, the establishment address, the annual average number of employees covered by the Form 300, and the total hours worked by all employees covered by the Form 300.
On the job
A year with no recordable cases still produces a posted summary, with zeros entered for each column total. The hours-worked and average-employee figures are required content of the form, not optional context.
Exact wording
To complete the Cal/OSHA Form 300A annual summary an employer must total the columns on the Cal/OSHA Form 300, entering zeros for each column total if there were no recordable cases, and must enter the calendar year covered, the company name, the establishment name, the establishment address, the annual average number of employees covered by the Form 300, and the total hours worked by all employees covered by the Form 300.
On construction, your establishment is the office the work is run from, not the jobsite.
An establishment is a single physical location where business is conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed. Where employees do not work at one location, the establishment is the main or branch office, terminal or station that either supervises the work or is the base personnel work from. Normally each such office, terminal or station is its own establishment. You may treat two or more locations as a single establishment only where you run them as one business operation under common management, they are in close proximity, and one set of business records covers them. A telecommuting employee's home is not an establishment: you keep no separate Cal/OSHA Form 300 for it, and you link that employee to one of your establishments instead.
On the job
On construction the establishment is the office the work is run from, not the jobsite. A contractor who reads establishment as jobsite keeps and posts records in the wrong places, and the term decides where both duties land.
Exact wording
For Cal/OSHA recordkeeping, an establishment is a single physical location where business is conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed. For activities where employees do not work at a single physical location, such as construction, the establishment is represented by the main or branch offices, terminals or stations that either supervise those activities or are the base from which personnel carry them out. Normally each such office, terminal or station is its own establishment; two or more physical locations may be treated as a single establishment only where the employer runs them as one business operation under common management, they are in close proximity, and one set of business records covers them. If an employee telecommutes from home, the home is not an establishment and no separate Cal/OSHA Form 300 is required for it; a telecommuting employee is linked to one of the employer's establishments instead.
Keep a separate Cal/OSHA Form 300 for each establishment you expect to last a year.
The one-year test measures how long the establishment itself is expected to be in operation, not how long any single job run from it lasts. Any establishment expected to operate one year or longer needs its own Cal/OSHA Form 300.
On the job
The one-year test decides how many logs a multi-establishment contractor keeps. It measures the expected life of the establishment, not the length of any one job run from it.
Exact wording
An employer must keep a separate Cal/OSHA Form 300 for each establishment that is expected to be in operation for one year or longer.
When two employers share a worker, the one supervising day to day records the injury.
This covers a contractor's employee working on a host employer's site and labor from a temporary help, employee leasing, or personnel supply service. You and the other employer should coordinate so each injury and illness appears on only one Form 300. A self-employed person injured at the establishment is not recorded at all, because the Cal/OSHA Act and this regulation do not cover the self-employed.
On the job
The risk on a shared site is not that nobody records the case but that both employers do, or that each assumes the other has. The regulation resolves it by pointing at one Form 300 and asking the employers to agree which.
Exact wording
Where more than one employer is involved with the same worker — a contractor's employee working on a host employer's site, or labor from a temporary help, employee leasing or personnel supply service — the employers should coordinate their efforts so that each injury and illness is recorded only once, on the Form 300 of whichever employer provides the day-to-day supervision. A self-employed person injured while working at the establishment is not recorded at all, because the self-employed are not covered by the Cal/OSHA Act or this regulation.
A physician or other licensed health care professional is anyone licensed to perform the recordkeeping activities.
For Cal/OSHA recordkeeping, a physician or other licensed health care professional is any individual whose license, registration, or certification legally permits them to independently perform the activities the recordkeeping regulation describes, or to be delegated the responsibility to perform them.
On the job
Several recording triggers turn on what this person recommends, and the term is not limited to physicians. A jobsite occupational-health service staffed by a nurse practitioner or physician assistant produces recommendations that count, so reading the phrase as “doctor” is how a recordable case gets missed.
Exact wording
For Cal/OSHA recordkeeping, a physician or other licensed health care professional is an individual whose legally permitted scope of practice — their license, registration, or certification — allows them to independently perform, or to be delegated the responsibility to perform, the activities described by the recordkeeping regulation.
You record the recommended days away even if the employee comes to work.
Record the case on the Cal/OSHA Form 300 as a case with days away from work, and enter the number of calendar days the physician or other licensed health care professional recommended the injured or ill employee stay at home. Do this whether the employee follows the recommendation or not. If the recommendation is instead to return to work and the employee stays home anyway, the count of days away ends on the date the return to work was recommended.
On the job
The recommendation is what the regulation measures, in both directions. A labourer told to stay home three days who turns up and works produces a three-day days-away case, and an employer who counts only the days the employee actually missed records nothing.
Exact wording
Where a physician or other licensed health care professional recommends that an injured or ill employee stay at home but the employee comes to work anyway, the employer must record the case on the Cal/OSHA Form 300 as a case with days away from work and enter the number of calendar days away that was recommended. The days away must be recorded whether the employee follows the recommendation or not. Where the recommendation is instead that the employee return to work and the employee stays at home anyway, the count of days away ends on the date the return to work was recommended.
Record a recommended restriction as a restricted work case even if the employee works normally.
A restricted work case is one where a physician or other licensed health care professional recommends keeping the employee from one or more routine job functions or from working the full workday. Record it on the Cal/OSHA Form 300 even though the employee performs all routine job functions anyway. With two or more such recommendations, you may record the case on whichever one you decide is the most authoritative.
On the job
A superintendent who sees the carpenter lifting overhead all week concludes there was no restriction and no case. The regulation records it on the strength of the recommendation alone — and separately expects the employer to ensure the employee actually complies with it.
Exact wording
Where a physician or other licensed health care professional recommends a job restriction that keeps the employee from one or more routine job functions or from working the full workday, but the employee performs all of their routine job functions anyway, the employer must still record the injury or illness on the Cal/OSHA Form 300 as a restricted work case. Where recommendations come from two or more such professionals, the employer may decide which recommendation is the most authoritative and record the case on that one.
You must set up a way for employees to report work-related injuries and illnesses promptly.
Telling each employee how to report is a separate duty from having the procedure exist. You must also give employees and their representatives access to the injury and illness records. All three duties are one involvement requirement.
On the job
The recording duties are useless if nobody knows how to report, so the standard makes the reporting channel itself an employer obligation rather than an assumption.
Exact wording
Employees and their representatives must be involved in the injury and illness recordkeeping system: the employer must set up a way for employees to report work-related injuries and illnesses promptly, must TELL each employee how to report one, and must provide access to the injury and illness records for employees and their representatives.
Copy the requested injury and illness records by the end of the next business day.
Employees, former employees, their personal representatives, and their authorized employee representatives — an authorized collective bargaining agent — may access the injury and illness records the recordkeeping article requires. When an employee or former employee asks for the Cal/OSHA Form 300 and annual summaries for an establishment that person worked in, you must give the requester a copy by the end of the next business day. The same deadline applies to a Form 301 Incident Report describing that person's own injury or illness.
On the job
One business day is a short clock for a record that may be years old and stored off site, and the right survives the employment — a former employee can ask.
Exact wording
Employees, FORMER employees, their personal representatives, and their authorized employee representatives — an authorized collective bargaining agent — have the right to access the injury and illness records required by the recordkeeping article; where an employee or former employee asks for the Cal/OSHA Form 300 and annual summaries for an establishment they worked in, the employer must give the requester a copy BY THE END OF THE NEXT BUSINESS DAY, and the same deadline applies to a Form 301 Incident Report describing that person's own injury or illness.
A collective bargaining agreement can add access to injury and illness records. Privacy deletions still apply.
Employees and their representatives may bargain for access to injury and illness information beyond what the recordkeeping section provides. That bargained access stays subject to the privacy protections, so you still make the required deletions before handing a record over.
On the job
A union contractor whose agreement promises the business agent copies of incident reports cannot rely on the agreement as a defense for handing them over intact. The privacy deletions are not bargainable, and the harm of getting it wrong falls on the injured employee whose medical details are disclosed.
Exact wording
An employee representative's right to access injury and illness records does not override the standard's privacy protections. Employees and employee representatives may collectively bargain for access to injury and illness information IN ADDITION to what the section provides — but that is expressly subject to the provisions protecting employee privacy, so a collective bargaining agreement cannot enlarge access past the required redactions.
Two health care professionals can recommend differently. You record the case on the most authoritative recommendation.
Two or more physicians or other licensed health care professionals may give you different recommendations on one case. You may decide which recommendation is the most authoritative and record the case based on that recommendation.
On the job
Conflicting notes are ordinary once a worker sees both a clinic and their own doctor. The rule gives the employer a decision to make rather than a tie to break by default, and the choice has to be defensible as the most authoritative rather than the most convenient.
Exact wording
Where the employer receives recommendations from two or more physicians or other licensed health care professionals, the employer may decide which recommendation is the most authoritative and record the case based upon that recommendation.
Keep Cal/OSHA injury records five years past the year they cover. Update only the Form 300.
You must keep four things for five years following the end of the calendar year the records cover: the Form 300, the privacy case list if one exists, the Form 300A, and the Form 301 Incident Reports. While they are stored, keep the Form 300 current: add newly discovered recordable injuries or illnesses, and show changes in the classification of a recorded case by removing or lining out the original entry and entering the new information. The Form 300A and Form 301 need not be updated.
On the job
Five years after the year they cover is the tested figure, and the log keeps changing during storage while the summary and incident reports do not.
Exact wording
An employer must save the Cal/OSHA Form 300, the privacy case list if one exists, the Form 300A, and the Form 301 Incident Reports for five years following the end of the calendar year the records cover. During that storage period the stored Form 300 must be updated to include newly discovered recordable injuries or illnesses and to show changes in the classification of recorded cases, removing or lining out the original entry and entering the new information; the Form 300A and Form 301 need not be updated.
Take away
22 rules · 15 minViolations and penalties
Cal/OSHA presumes a serious violation when death or serious physical harm is realistically possible.
Proving that a violation existed is not enough by itself to make it serious. The Division of Occupational Safety and Health must also show the actual hazard the violation created could realistically cause death or serious physical harm. That showing raises the presumption, which the employer may rebut.
On the job
The presumption moves the burden. Without it the Division would have to prove what an employer knew, and knowledge lives inside the company. Showing a realistic possibility of death or serious harm is something an inspector can establish from the site itself. The employer can still rebut it — but it has to.
Exact wording
There is a rebuttable presumption that a serious violation exists in a place of employment if the Division of Occupational Safety and Health demonstrates that there is a realistic possibility that death or serious physical harm could result from the actual hazard created by the violation, and demonstrating a violation is not by itself sufficient to establish that the violation is serious.
Serious physical harm means hospitalization beyond observation, lost body part, disfigurement, permanent impairment, or silicosis.
Serious physical harm is any injury or illness, specific or cumulative, that occurs in the place of employment or in connection with any employment. The harm qualifies if it results in any one of these: inpatient hospitalization for purposes other than medical observation; loss of any member of the body; any serious degree of permanent disfigurement; impairment that leaves a part of the body or the function of an organ permanently and significantly reduced in efficiency, on or off the job; or silicosis or silica-related lung cancer. Depending on severity, impairments that count include, but are not limited to, second-degree or worse burns; crushing injuries, including internal injuries even though the skin surface may be intact; respiratory illnesses; or broken bones.
On the job
This is the term the serious-violation presumption turns on, and it cuts both ways. A hospital stay purely for observation is outside it. A broken bone or an internal crushing injury with unbroken skin can be inside it, depending on severity, where the impairment permanently and significantly reduces efficiency.
Exact wording
Serious physical harm means any injury or illness, specific or cumulative, occurring in the place of employment or in connection with any employment that results in inpatient hospitalization for purposes other than medical observation, the loss of any member of the body, any serious degree of permanent disfigurement, impairment sufficient to cause a part of the body or the function of an organ to become permanently and significantly reduced in efficiency on or off the job — including, but not limited to, depending on the severity, second-degree or worse burns, crushing injuries including internal injuries even though the skin surface may be intact, respiratory illnesses, or broken bones — or silicosis or silica-related lung cancer.
Cal/OSHA may assess you up to $12,471 for each violation determined not to be serious.
A civil penalty applies to violations of an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or of Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code. The $12,471 maximum rises each January 1 by the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. That yearly adjustment is filed with the Office of Administrative Law and published in the California Code of Regulations, so the published adjusted figure controls, not the amount printed in the statute. Calculate the penalty from the amounts in effect during the calendar year the citation was issued, not those in effect when the violation occurred.
On the job
The ceiling moves every January, so which year applies is a real question with a real answer: the year the citation issued. A violation found late in one year and cited early in the next is measured by the new schedule.
Exact wording
An employer who violates an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, where the violation is specifically determined not to be of a serious nature, may be assessed a civil penalty of up to $12,471 for each violation, and that maximum is increased each January 1 based on the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. Any such penalty is calculated using the penalty amounts in effect during the calendar year in which the citation was issued, not those in effect when the violation occurred, and the regulation making that annual adjustment is filed with the Office of Administrative Law for publication in the California Code of Regulations — so the operative figure is the published adjusted one rather than the amount printed in the statute.
A serious violation costs up to $25,000. No operative IIPP means no good-faith or history adjustment.
The $25,000 ceiling is a civil penalty for each serious violation of an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or of Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code. If your IIPP is not operative—not written and actually running—Cal/OSHA assesses that penalty with no adjustment for good faith and none for history of previous violations.
On the job
An employer with no operative injury prevention program loses the good-faith and prior-history reductions, so the serious-violation penalty is assessed without those two adjustments.
Exact wording
An employer who commits a serious violation of an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, shall be assessed a civil penalty of up to $25,000 for each violation, and an employer that does not have an operative injury prevention program receives no adjustment for good faith or for history of previous violations.
Willful or repeated violations cost up to $124,709 each. Willful ones cost at least $8,908.
The $124,709 maximum applies when you willfully or repeatedly violate an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, and it also applies when you commit an enterprise-wide violation as specified in Labor Code section 6317. You pay at least $8,908 for each willful violation. Both figures rise each January 1 by the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, and the adjusting regulation is filed with the Office of Administrative Law for publication in the California Code of Regulations, so the published figure in effect during the calendar year the citation was issued governs the calculation — not the figure in effect when the violation occurred, and not the figure printed in the statute.
On the job
Willful and repeated sit in their own penalty tier because they describe a choice rather than a lapse: a ceiling of $124,709 per violation and a floor of $8,908 for each willful one, both CPI-indexed. What counts as 'repeatedly' is defined by the repeat-violation regulation, not by this section.
Exact wording
An employer who willfully or repeatedly violates an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, or who commits an enterprise-wide violation as specified in Labor Code section 6317, may be assessed a civil penalty of not more than $124,709 for each violation, and in no case less than $8,908 for each willful violation; both figures are increased each January 1 based on the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. Any penalty is calculated using the penalty amounts in effect during the calendar year in which the citation was issued, not those in effect when the violation occurred, and the regulation making that annual adjustment is filed with the Office of Administrative Law for publication in the California Code of Regulations — so the operative figure is the published adjusted one rather than the amount printed in the statute.
You commit a public offense if your willful violation causes an employee's death or permanent impairment.
A public offense is a crime, and the rule reaches the employer and also an employee having direction, management, control, or custody of any employment, place of employment, or other employee. The impairment must be permanent or prolonged. The violation can be of an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or of Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, and willfully has the same meaning as in Penal Code section 7. Absent a qualifying prior conviction in the preceding seven years, the punishment is either county jail for up to one year, a fine of up to $100,000, or both, or state prison for 16 months, two years, or three years, a fine of up to $250,000, or both. In either case, if the defendant is a corporation or a limited liability company, the fine may not exceed $1,500,000. A manslaughter prosecution under Penal Code section 192 is still allowed.
On the job
This one reaches past the company to the individual who had direction or control, so a supervisor is personally exposed and not only the employer. The stated ranges are also not the outer limit of criminal exposure — the section expressly leaves a manslaughter prosecution available.
Exact wording
An employer, or an employee having direction, management, control, or custody of any employment, place of employment, or other employee, who willfully violates an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, and that violation causes death to an employee, or causes permanent or prolonged impairment of the body of an employee, is guilty of a public offense. Absent a qualifying prior conviction within the preceding seven years, it is punishable EITHER by imprisonment in a county jail for a term not exceeding one year, or a fine not exceeding $100,000, or both; OR by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months, or two or three years, or a fine of not more than $250,000, or both. In either case, if the defendant is a corporation or a limited liability company, the fine may not exceed $1,500,000. As used in that section, “willfully” has the same definition as it has in Penal Code section 7, and the section does not prohibit a prosecution under Penal Code section 192.
If you repeatedly violate a safety standard, you receive no good faith or history adjustment.
The good faith and history adjustments are the reductions Cal/OSHA applies to a base penalty under the regulations promulgated under Labor Code section 6319(c). If you repeatedly violate an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, you receive neither adjustment on any civil penalty assessed under that section.
On the job
Good faith and prior history are the two adjustments a contractor most expects to earn by cooperating, and repeating a violation is what forfeits them. The bar removes those two bases only, and it applies to any penalty assessed under the section.
Exact wording
An employer who repeatedly violates an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, does not receive any adjustment of any civil penalty assessed under that section on the basis of the regulations promulgated under Labor Code section 6319(c) pertaining to the good faith of the employer or the history of previous violations of the employer.
Willfully in the Penal Code means the person meant to do the act.
In the Penal Code, willfully describes the intent behind an act or omission: simply a purpose or willingness to commit that act or make that omission, unless the context shows otherwise. The person need not intend to break the law, injure another, or acquire any advantage.
On the job
It is a far lower bar than the everyday sense of the word: purpose or willingness to do the act is enough, and neither an intent to break the law nor an intent to harm anyone is required.
Exact wording
In the Penal Code, “willfully,” when applied to the intent with which an act is done or omitted, implies simply a purpose or willingness to commit the act, or make the omission referred to, unless otherwise apparent from the context. It does not require any intent to violate law, to injure another, or to acquire any advantage.
Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice.
Malice is the intent that makes a killing murder. Involuntary manslaughter is a killing in the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony, or in the commission of a lawful act that might produce death, done in an unlawful manner or without due caution and circumspection. That branch does not apply to acts committed in the driving of a vehicle, which the law treats separately as vehicular manslaughter.
On the job
The involuntary branch is the one an unlawful act or a want of due caution on a jobsite reaches, and it turns on neither malice nor intent to kill.
Exact wording
Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice. Involuntary manslaughter is a killing in the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony, or in the commission of a lawful act which might produce death, in an unlawful manner, or without due caution and circumspection; that branch does not apply to acts committed in the driving of a vehicle, which the section treats separately as vehicular manslaughter.
If you violate the Title 8 permit or asbestos registration rules, you pay at least $1,250.
Article 2 of Title 8 requires permits for excavations, trenches, construction and demolition, and the underground use of diesel engines in work in mines and tunnels; asbestos-related work carries its own registration requirement. Cal/OSHA adjusts the $1,250 minimum proposed civil penalty for Size, Good Faith, and History, but grants no abatement credit. The minimum for a Regulatory violation of those permit or registration requirements is $250.
On the job
Pulling the permit late and correcting on the spot does not reduce this to a nominal figure — it starts at $1,250 rather than the ordinary $500 Regulatory minimum, and the abatement credit that normally rewards prompt correction is unavailable here.
Exact wording
An employer who violates the Title 8 article 2 permit requirements — excavations, trenches, construction and demolition, and the underground use of diesel engines in work in mines and tunnels — or the registration requirements for asbestos-related work, is assessed a minimum proposed civil penalty of $1,250. That proposed penalty is adjusted for Size, Good Faith, and History, but no abatement credit is granted, and the minimum penalty for a Regulatory violation of the permit or registration requirements is $250.
If you report a serious injury, illness, or death late, the penalty is at least $5,000.
Title 8 section 342(a) sets the deadline for reporting an employee's serious injury or illness, or death. If you are the employer and you report after that deadline, $5,000 is the floor, not the ceiling: the penalty can be higher.
On the job
The figure is a minimum rather than a ceiling, so a late report is not a paperwork slip with a nominal penalty attached.
Exact wording
An employer who fails to timely report an employee's serious injury or illness, or death, in violation of Title 8 section 342(a), is assessed a minimum penalty of $5,000.
You must prove abatement to earn the 50% credit on a Serious violation.
Abatement means correcting the violation the Division cited. This rule covers Serious violations not excluded from the credit. You qualify if you abated the violation at the initial visit or a later visit during the inspection, before the citation issued. You also qualify if you submit a statement signed under penalty of perjury — with supporting evidence where necessary to prove abatement — that you abated within the period the citation fixed for abatement, and the Division receives that statement and evidence within 10 working days after that period ends. If you do neither, the Division grants no 50% credit.
On the job
For a General violation the 50% abatement credit is applied on the presumption that the employer will correct the violation, but for a Serious one the employer has to earn it by one of these two routes. Missing the 10-working-day receipt deadline forfeits the whole credit, and the deadline runs on receipt rather than on mailing. And the statement is made under penalty of perjury for a reason: if reinspection shows the affirmed abatement did not occur, the recomputed penalty is adjusted only for Size.
Exact wording
For a Serious violation that is not among those excluded from the abatement credit, the Division does not grant the 50% abatement credit unless the employer has either abated the violation at the time of the initial or a subsequent visit during an inspection and before the citation issued, or submitted a statement signed under penalty of perjury — together with supporting evidence where necessary to prove abatement — that it abated the violation within the period fixed for abatement in the citation, with that signed statement and evidence received within 10 working days after the end of that period.
Serious violations rated high, Repeat, Willful, carcinogen-related, or injury-causing earn no 50% abatement credit.
The abatement credit is a 50% penalty cut the Division applies for correcting the violation. You receive none of it when a Serious violation has extent and likelihood both rated high, is designated Repeat Serious or Willful Serious, involves the use of a carcinogen, or caused death or serious injury, illness or exposure. Separately, the automatic 50% abatement credit applied to General violations on the presumption that you will correct them is not available for violations classified Repeat General or Willful General.
On the job
These are the cases where abating promptly earns nothing off the penalty, so an employer counting on the credit to halve a serious citation needs to know its exclusions before relying on it.
Exact wording
The 50% abatement credit is not available at all for Serious violations for which extent and likelihood are rated high, for violations designated Repeat Serious or Willful Serious, for Serious violations respecting the use of a carcinogen, or for Serious violations causing death or serious injury, illness or exposure. Separately, the automatic 50% abatement credit applied to General violations on the presumption that the employer will correct them is not available for violations classified Repeat General or Willful General.
A new employer pays no IIPP civil penalty for one year after starting the business.
The year runs from the date you establish the business in California, not from your license date. Cal/OSHA assesses no civil penalty for a Regulatory or General violation of the IIPP standard during that year, and only if you made a good faith effort to comply with that standard.
On the job
The trigger is establishing the business in California, not becoming licensed — a contractor who has run the business for years and only just got licensed is outside this, and a genuinely new employer inside it still needs the good faith effort.
Exact wording
No civil penalty is assessed against a new employer for a period of one year after the date the new employer establishes a business in the state, for a Regulatory or General violation of the Injury and Illness Prevention Program standard, if the employer has made a good faith effort to comply with that standard.
A serious repeated or willful repeated crane violation causing death or serious injury costs $140,000.
The $140,000 applies only to a serious repeated or willful repeated violation of a crane standard, order, or special order, and only if the Division determines the violation caused the death or serious injury. No adjustment raises or lowers it.
On the job
This is a flat sum inside a range that otherwise works as a ceiling, and none of the Size, Good Faith or History adjustments reach it. Crane and hoisting work is squarely this audience's.
Exact wording
Where an employer commits a serious repeated or willful repeated violation of a crane standard, order, or special order, and the Division determines that the violation caused death or serious injury, the penalty is $140,000 and is not subject to adjustment.
Cal/OSHA meets its knowledge duty by delivering the serious-violation form at least 15 days before citing.
The Division delivers a standardized form describing the violations it intends to cite as serious and soliciting your information. The form must arrive at least 15 days before the citation issues. You may provide information any time before citations issue.
On the job
A standardized form arriving from Cal/OSHA describing violations it intends to cite as serious is not itself a citation — it is the step before one, and it means a serious citation is coming. The 15 days is a minimum period before the Division may issue, not a deadline the employer has to answer by.
Exact wording
The Division satisfies its requirement to determine and consider the facts bearing on an employer's knowledge of a serious violation if, not less than 15 days before issuing a citation for a serious violation, it delivers to the employer a standardized form containing the alleged violation descriptions it intends to cite as serious and soliciting the employer's information. The employer may provide information at any time before citations are issued.
Not answering the pre-citation inquiry draws no negative inference at the hearing.
You may still present that information at the hearing. You may also present different information at the hearing than you gave the Division and explain the inconsistency. But the trier of fact may draw a negative inference from earlier inconsistent factual information.
On the job
Silence before citation costs the employer nothing, but a hurried answer that later changes does. That is the opposite of the instinct to get something on the record quickly.
Exact wording
An employer who does not provide information in response to the Division's pre-citation inquiry is not barred from presenting that information at the hearing, and no negative inference is drawn from not having provided it. An employer may offer different information at the hearing than it gave the Division and may explain the inconsistency, but the trier of fact may draw a negative inference from the prior inconsistent factual information.
Elevator owners and custodians face up to $1,000 for permit violations and $2,000 for dangerous operation.
Owning an elevator is not the only trigger: custody, management, or operation of one counts too. You may be assessed a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for operating an elevator without a valid permit, or for failing to post the permit as required. The penalty is up to $2,000 for operating it, or permitting its operation, in a condition dangerous to life or the safety of any person, or in violation of any Order Prohibiting Use issued by the Division.
On the job
The exposure follows CUSTODY, not a trade license. A general contractor running a permitted construction personnel hoist, or holding a building's elevator during a renovation, is a person having custody, management, or operation. So a red-tagged Order Prohibiting Use on that equipment reaches the contractor directly, not only the conveyance specialist who installed it.
Exact wording
Any person owning or having custody, management, or operation of an elevator may be assessed a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for operating it without a valid permit or for failing to post the permit as required, and up to $2,000 for operating it, or permitting its operation, in a condition which is dangerous to life or the safety of any person, or in violation of any Order Prohibiting Use issued by the Division.
You may rebut the Division's presumption that a violation is serious.
The Division of Occupational Safety and Health is the agency that establishes that presumption. Rebutting it means proving you did not know of the violation and could not, with reasonable diligence, have known of it. Two showings prove that, and you must make both. First, that you took all the steps a reasonable and responsible employer in like circumstances should be expected to take before the violation occurred to anticipate and prevent it. Second, that you took effective action to eliminate employee exposure to the hazard as soon as the violation was discovered.
On the job
Not knowing is the conclusion, not the evidence. The statute names what actually proves it, and the two halves sit on opposite sides of the violation — what you did beforehand to prevent it, and what you did afterwards the moment you found it. A contractor who can show only one has not rebutted anything.
Exact wording
Where the Division establishes the presumption that a violation is serious, the employer may rebut that presumption and establish that the violation is not serious by demonstrating that the employer did not know, and could not with the exercise of reasonable diligence have known, of the presence of the violation. The employer accomplishes this by demonstrating BOTH of two things: that it took all the steps a reasonable and responsible employer in like circumstances should be expected to take BEFORE the violation occurred to anticipate and prevent it, and that it took effective action to eliminate employee exposure to the hazard AS SOON AS the violation was discovered.
A Regulatory violation concerns permits, posting, recordkeeping or reporting.
A Regulatory violation is one, other than a Serious or General violation, that pertains to permit, posting, recordkeeping and reporting requirements — for example, failing to obtain a permit, failing to post a citation or poster, failing to keep required records, or failing to report industrial accidents. A General violation is one specifically determined not to be of a serious nature but having a relationship to the occupational safety and health of employees.
On the job
The classification decides which penalty schedule applies, and most paperwork duties (permits, posting, recordkeeping and reporting) fall in the Regulatory class rather than the General one.
Exact wording
Cal/OSHA classifies violations before it prices them. A REGULATORY violation is one, other than a Serious or General violation, pertaining to permit, posting, recordkeeping and reporting requirements — for example failing to obtain a permit, failing to post a citation or poster, failing to keep required records, or failing to report industrial accidents. A GENERAL violation is one specifically determined not to be of a serious nature but having a relationship to the occupational safety and health of employees.
A repeat citation must issue within five years after the earlier violation becomes final.
A repeat violation starts with an earlier violation inside California that you abated or indicated you abated and for which a citation was issued. On a later inspection, the Division must find that you violated a substantially similar regulatory requirement. The Division must issue the new citation within five years following the later of two dates: the final order affirming the earlier violation, or the date the underlying citation became final by operation of law. For violations other than repeat Regulatory ones, the new violation must also involve essentially similar conditions or hazards.
On the job
This decides whether the repeat penalty tier and the loss of every adjustment except Size apply at all, and it cuts both ways. A contractor cited two years ago for an unguarded floor opening and now cited for missing machine guarding has neither similar conditions nor similar hazards, so the second citation is not repeat. But for the Regulatory class — the permit, posting, recordkeeping and reporting citations — the extra 'essentially similar conditions or hazards' test is expressly not required, so a substantially similar regulatory requirement is enough.
Exact wording
A REPEAT violation is one where the employer has abated or indicated abatement of an earlier violation occurring within the state for which a citation was issued, and on a later inspection the Division finds a violation of a SUBSTANTIALLY SIMILAR REGULATORY REQUIREMENT and issues a citation within FIVE YEARS following the later of the final order affirming the earlier violation or the date the underlying citation became final by operation of law. For violations other than repeat REGULATORY ones, the subsequent violation must also involve essentially similar conditions or hazards.
You have 15 working days from receipt to appeal a Cal/OSHA citation to the Appeals Board.
An employer served with a citation or notice under Labor Code section 6317, or with a notice of proposed penalty, may appeal. So may any other person obligated to the employer, as section 6319 specifies. The appeal goes to the Appeals Board within 15 working days from receipt of the citation or notice. It may contest the alleged violations, the abatement periods, the amount of proposed penalties, and the reasonableness of the changes the Division requires to abate the condition.
On the job
Fifteen working days from receipt, and the appeal can contest four things: the violation, the abatement period, the penalty, and the reasonableness of the required fix.
Exact wording
An employer served with a citation or notice under section 6317, or a notice of proposed penalty, or any other person obligated to the employer as section 6319 specifies, may appeal to the Appeals Board within 15 working days from receipt of the citation or notice, as to the violations alleged, the abatement periods, the amount of proposed penalties, and the reasonableness of the changes the Division requires to abate the condition.
Take away
- Cal/OSHA presumes a serious violation when death or serious physical harm is realistically possible.
- Serious physical harm means hospitalization beyond observation, lost body part, disfigurement, permanent impairment, or silicosis.
- Cal/OSHA may assess you up to $12,471 for each violation determined not to be serious.
Important numbers to know
Where people go wrong
Easy to mix up: Cal/OSHA serious-injury report vs. claim form vs. five-day injury report
Which is which?
Sounds right: A doctor's involvement means it was more than first aid.
Where’s the catch?
Easy to mix up: IIPP vs.
Which is which?
Sounds right: Under 10 employees, so no written program.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: A safety violation is a safety violation.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: Cal/OSHA has to prove the violation was serious.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: Whoever prepares the annual summary can certify it.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: A general contractor asks for your Form 300 log to prequalify you. You send it over as it sits.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: Calling Cal/OSHA's consultation service just puts you on their radar.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: The under-20 exception works like the under-10 rule, so I only need three documents.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: The injury records are the company's, so access is a courtesy.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: Our CBA gives the business agent copies of incident reports, so we hand them over.
Where’s the catch?
Glossary
Every term this guide defines, in one place. Each is also defined where it first appears.
- Code of Safe Practices
- A written set of safe-work rules for your own operations, required on construction work in addition to the IIPP.
- First aid
- Careful — there are TWO first-aid tests in this section and they are not the same. For the workers’ compensation claim form and the injury report, first aid is one-time treatment of a minor injury plus a follow-up visit just to look at it. For Cal/OSHA Form 300 recordkeeping, first aid is a closed list of specific treatments. Both agree on one thing: who provided the treatment never decides the question.
- Tailgate or toolbox meeting
- A short crew safety meeting run by the supervisor at the jobsite.
Keep going
- Practice questions for Law & Business — Safety is 14% of the exam.
- Job scenario: The Popcorn Ceiling
- Job scenario: Five Feet Down
- Also in Safety: General Safety: Permits, Heat Illness, Falls, Excavations, and Emergency Care
- Also in Safety: Hazardous and Unknown Materials: Asbestos, Lead, and Chemical Hazard Communication
- Every number on one page — this guide’s figures alongside every other Law & Business guide’s.
Test yourself: 7 questions for this guide
A paid account adds more ways to practice and prepare: study questions after every chapter, practice questions for every topic, timed practice exams, and job scenarios drawn from real jobs. A free account gets you one timed practice exam and saves your progress across devices. Here is one of this guide's questions:
A framer working alone on a remote portion of the site is seriously injured. Nobody discovers it, and no reasonable inquiry would have turned it up, until the crew regroups at noon Tuesday. When must Cal/OSHA hear from you?
AnswerBy 8:00 p.m. Tuesday. The report is immediate — as soon as practically possible and not longer than 8 hours after you know, OR would have known with diligent inquiry. Here those are the same moment, because the facts say no reasonable inquiry would have surfaced it sooner. Change the facts and the anchor moves: a worker taken to hospital from an active crew at 7:00 a.m. is something diligent inquiry would have revealed long before your foreman got round to telling you, and the clock would run from then. Only demonstrable exigent circumstances stretch it, and then to no longer than 24 hours AFTER THE INCIDENT — a different anchor from the 8-hour limit.
Finished reading?
When you miss a question on this topic, we'll suggest a job scenario where there is one, rather than text you've already read. Finishing every chapter counts too.