California OSHA board rules to keep most employees masked, even as state nears loosening of pandemic restrictions
The California OSHA board revised masking requirements again for most California employees, ruling yesterday that employees need to keep wearing masks unless everyone in the room is fully vaccinated. The contentious decision comes even as California nears June 15th, a date that embattled governor Gavin Newsom had decided as the day to fully reopen the state and do away with almost all mask and distancing requirements for vaccinated people. Under pressure by criticism from business groups, which argued that it goes against the Governor Newsom's promise to loosen restrictions and that the governor could choose to use his executive powers to override the decision made by the board he had appointed, the board noted that the restrictions would be temporary as they will use a new three-person task force to determine how to adapt to current CDC guidelines for health and safety in the coming months. The board noted that that there is a difference between employees and the regular public, where employees are likely to have longer cumulative exposure to risk than casual social contact. Worker advocates and unions were generally approving of the revised rules, saying that there was much work to be done before controls are considerably loosened.
See "California OSHA board rules to keep most employees masked, even as state nears loosening of pandemic restrictions", Don Thompson, Associated Press, June 4, 2021