Since our original post, the State of California has released a revised version of the COVID-19 employer playbook, which is now called the “COVID-19 Employer Playbook: Supporting a Safer Environment for Workers and Customers.” According to this updated guidance:

The California Department of Public Health recently released detailed guidance for employers who are trying to understand their obligations during the coronavirus pandemic. The COVID-19 Employer Playbook for a Safe Reopening is intended to help businesses plan and prepare to reopen safely and mitigate the risks for workers and customers.

As we previously shared, California employers with 5 or more employees are required to provide harassment prevention training to all employees no later than January 1, 2021. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) recently released its long-awaited, free online training for non-supervisory employees. This interactive training is one-hour in duration, optimized for mobile phones, accessible to people with disabilities, and available in Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean. The DFEH plans to release a two-hour supervisory training module in the coming months.

Public health officers in seven counties of the San Francisco Bay Area issued orders on March 16, 2020 directing residents to shelter in place for three weeks and avoid all non-essential travel and business activities to limit the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus as much as possible. The orders take effect at midnight on March 17, 2020 and are scheduled to last through April 7, 2020 unless otherwise modified.

With the recent passage of Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), California has dramatically reshaped the relationship between independent contractors and their clients. An estimated 1 million Californians who are currently classified as independent contractors may be reclassified as employees under AB 5, beginning January 1, 2020. Businesses that have become accustomed to using lower-cost independent contractors to perform critical business functions will need to revisit these arrangements and make necessary operational and pricing adjustments to comply with the new rules.

As we shared back in April, a 2018 law requires all employers with five or more employees in California to provide effective, interactive harassment prevention training to all employees in the state: two (2) hours for supervisory employees and one (1) hour for non-supervisory employees. The deadline for complying with this law was originally January 1, 2020. However, California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed legislation (SB 778) extending the deadline by one year, giving employers until January 1, 2021 to complete this training.

As we head into Q2, now is a good time to remind California employers of their obligation to provide harassment prevention training to employees during 2019.