On August 28, 2023, California Sen. Dave Cortese (D-15) announced a last-minute amendment to Senate Bill (SB) No. 553. SB 553, if passed, would require nearly all employers in California to take comprehensive workplace violence prevention measures, with plans beginning July 1, 2024.
The bill requires that businesses and employees not obstruct vandalism and a fine of $18,000.
So remind Californians: When you encounter theft, raise your hands to avoid double loss.
In fact, the purpose of this bill is because employees face more and more violence in the workplace, not only "0 yuan purchase", "smashing and robbery", etc., but also violence from colleagues.
Employers will prohibit employees from confronting pickpockets who buy $0, so as to prevent employees from being put in danger or even injured or killed.
In other words: the boss needs to hire professional security personnel, and cannot ask employees to stop the purchase of 0 yuan, otherwise they will be fined.
So here's the problem: for large shopping malls, there is enough money to hire security personnel, but for small shops on the street, hiring security personnel is a big expense and may not be possible. Then in the face of smashing and robbery, the shopkeeper can't help but fight hard with the robbers and try to protect his property.
On September 1, 2023, the California Legislature Appropriations Committee passed the newly revised SB 553. SB 553 is now before Parliament and Senate for final approval. At present, this proposal has not been formally passed into law. If passed and signed into law, SB 553 will require nearly all California employers to do the following:
- Implement a comprehensive, written workplace violence prevention plan for hazards in each work area and operation
- Ensure that the written plan provides effective procedures for receiving and responding to employee reports of workplace violence and that all supervisors and non-supervisor employees comply with the plan
- Review the effectiveness of the plan and modify it as needed
- Record each incident of workplace violence in the Violence Event Log with the date, time, and location of the incident, the type of workplace violence involved, and other details such as the identity of the perpetrator, basic information, the use or opposition of weapons, the presence of sexual assault or threats, the contact and response of security or law enforcement, and the identity of the person who completed the log
- Provide employees with effective training on workplace violence prevention (using appropriate materials based on the employee's education, literacy, and language), including information on how to obtain a copy of the employer's plan free of charge, the requirements of Section 6401.9 of the Labor Code, how to report an incident or concern about workplace violence to an employer or law enforcement, and how to seek help to prevent or respond to violence
- Training records are kept for at least one year, violence log logs for at least five years, and workplace violence investigation records for at least five years