California alters COVID standard
- Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health won’t add exclusion pay to the non-emergency version of its COVID standard, according to Deputy Chief for Health Eric Berg.
- Businesses are relieved that the exclusion pay provision is out but unhappy that the stand is proceeding,.
- Adding pay for employees required to be excluded from the workplace because of COVID would require a delay in implementing the proposed extended standard of at least several months, Berg said.
- The Standards Board will vote on the regulation at its December meeting, and the standard is expected to take effect at the first of the year.
Rates rise in The Golden State
- The latest wage data from the U.S. Department of Labor show that California’s SAWW increased by 5.159 percent from $1,570 in the first quarter of 2021 to $1,651 in the first quarter of 2022.
- State law also ties minimum weekly TTD/PTD rates to SAWW increases, so those minimums will rise by $11.91 from the current $230.95 per week to $242.86 per week for claims with 2023 injury dates.
- Department of Industrial Relations unit, Division of Workers’ Compensation is expected to issue a formal, notice about the increase at some point.
- TTD/PTD maximum rate stands at $1,539.71 per week for 2022 injuries following a record increase of more than 13.5 percent that took effect last January and will increase to $1,619.15 per week for claims with injury dates on or after Jan. 1, 2023.
Greater emphasis on fall hazards
- OSHA has placed an increased emphasis on accidents at construction sites.
- The construction industry already accounts for more than half of all OSHA citations.
- OSHA guidance emphasizes training, worker awareness of potential hazards, and inspections of job sites to avoid incidents.
- The agency has further stressed fall protection, proper equipment operation, work zone stability, and overhead protection in operating aerial lifts.
Transgender woman receives workers comp after harassment
- A transgender woman in Japan received workers’ compensation when she developed depression after verbal abuse from her boss.
- The woman in her 40s was born a male but later started living in society as a woman after she started working at a company in Kanagawa.
- The lawyers say her boss started making abusive remarks about her gender.
- She developed depression and was forced to take a few years off from work.