On Friday, June 18, Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Steve Rosansky released a video sent to Chamber members and other businesses and community members to provide an overview of the Cal/OSHA board meeting of June 17 and the adoption of new COVID-19 workplace rules.
“The Cal/OSHA board adopted new workplace rules at its board meeting regarding masking and physical distancing,” said Rosansky in the video. “Instead of waiting for the rules to go into effect at the end of the month, Gov. Newsom issued an executive order that made the new rules effective immediately.”
Rosansky explained that based on the new Cal/OSHA guidelines, fully vaccinated employees are not required to wear masks. Vaccinated and unvaccinated employees do not have to wear masks outside. However, noted Rosansky, “unvaccinated employees are still required to wear masks indoors unless alone on their office or working from home.”
Rosansky added that “although employers must record whether employees are vaccinated or not, the employee can inform the employer of his or her vaccination status and the employer is not required to ask for proof. An employee that refuses to tell an employer his or her vaccination status will be treated by the employer as if the employee is unvaccinated.”
Employers are no longer required to implement physical distancing in the workplace, said Rosansky, unless there is an outbreak of coronavirus and reimplementing physical distancing is necessary to control the spread of the virus.
“In certain places, masks will still be required to be worn by all persons, both vaccinated and unvaccinated,” said Rosansky. Those places include on public transportation such as trains, planes, ferries, busses and taxis, in public transportation hubs such as airports, train stations, marinas and bus terminals, health care settings and long-term care facilities, state and local prisons, homeless shelters, and where required by the California Department of Public Health.
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