Cal/OSHA Withdraws Controversial Work Masks Guidelines – CBS San Francisco
SACRAMENTO (CBS / AP) – California’s workplace regulators have withdrawn a controversial pending mask ordinance while considering a rule more in line with Governor Gavin Newsom’s promise that the state will reopen fully on Tuesday after the pandemic.
The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board’s revised rule, passed last week after its initial rejection, would have only allowed workers to forego masks if every employee in a room is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. This is in contrast to the state’s broader plan to abolish virtually all masking and social distancing requirements for vaccinated individuals in line with the latest recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hours earlier, California Minister of Health and Welfare, Dr. Mark Ghaly announced that beginning June 15, the state will follow the Centers for Disease Control’s masking guidelines. Under CDC guidelines, those fully vaccinated can go to most outdoor and indoor locations without masks, except for public transportation exceptions, K-12 classrooms, health facilities, and homeless shelters.
UCSF epidemiologist Dr. George Rutherford believes Cal / OSHA has taken the right action from a medical standpoint.
“They were more conservative and basically said if everyone on a construction site isn’t vaccinated, everyone has to wear a mask and I think that’s probably too restrictive,” Rutherford told KPIX 5.
The board’s decision late Wednesday to repeal this workplace regulation before it goes into effect allows the board to review changes at its June 17 meeting and possibly bring them into effect by the end of the month.
But some business leaders maintained pressure on Newsom on Wednesday to override the board.
“After the confusion and ambiguity over reopening policies at the Cal / OSHA hearing tonight, the nationwide business community must urge the governor again before the 15th, California Business Roundtable President Lapsley, said in a post-vote statement. That, he said, “will be the catalyst for a full economic reopening and create a powerful incentive to vaccinate even more Californians.”
The goal of the unanimous vote, said Chairman David Thomas, is to amend the Workplace Ordinance “so that it is in line with the CDC and the California Department of Health, so that we are all on the same page. That’s what this is about, so we’re not out of step with everyone else. “
The safety committee staff did not provide any indication of the changes it will recommend next week other than that it will try to bring workplace rules closer to public health guidelines.
However, Eric Berg, deputy chief of health for the California Department of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal / OSHA, said that public health guidelines generally allow anyone who is vaccinated to wear a mask indoors. According to these rules, he said, “a vaccinated person does not have to wear a mask at work”.
The reversal came after the state health officer Dr. Tomás Aragón had reaffirmed to board members at a hastily scheduled special meeting that the state will lift most of the masking rules for vaccinated people next week, while continuing to require face coverings for unvaccinated people in indoor public spaces and businesses.
Exceptions, where everyone must remain masked, include public transportation, indoor school classes, health and correctional facilities, and places like homeless shelters and cooling centers, Aragón said. Individual companies are also free to require that everyone remain masked under the general rules, he said.
Helen Cleary, director of the Phylmar Regulatory Roundtable, a coalition of large corporations with major California offices, was among many business leaders calling on the board to adapt its rule to public health needs.
“Employers cannot plan with this high level of uncertainty,” she said. “We are disappointed and frustrated with the confusion, the process, the substance and the lack of leadership.”
The Workplace Board’s more restrictive approach left Newsom in an uncomfortable position as it battles an impending dismissal despite reluctance to override a board he has appointed.
“The public makes no distinction between this board of directors and the rest of the Newsom administration,” Michael Mueller, director of government relations for the California Association of Winegrape Growers, told board members prior to the vote. “What you hear is the Newsom administration saying that wearing masks at work may stay here.”
Pressure built on the board ahead of the meeting when a dozen corporate groups, including the California Retailers Association and organizations representing manufacturers, farmers, tourism interests, and other industries, sent a letter to Newsom asking it to revise the regulations of the board of directors.
Requiring masks when everyone in a workplace is not vaccinated would “create another barrier to reinstatement and reopening” at a time when “we need to provide incentives to bring people back,” they said. Additionally, they said the need for masks for people who are fully vaccinated could lead the public to believe that the vaccine isn’t actually effective.
Board member Laura Stock said it was important to continue protecting employees who have no realistic choice but to go to work.
For example, government data shows that there have been “70 outbreaks in retail in the past 30 days, more than two a day,” said Stock, who directs the Labor Occupational Health Program at UC Berkeley. “Outbreaks still happen.”
Corporate groups also want the board to withdraw its proposal to require employers to provide the most effective N95 masks for voluntary use by employees who work indoors or at major outdoor events and who are not fully vaccinated, starting July 31. That would be costly and competitive with the needs of health workers, they said.
But “the N95 is the one that checked all of these boxes,” Stock said.
The Cal / OSHA Board of Directors regulations apply to almost every workplace in the state, including workers in offices, factories, and retail outlets. The pandemic rules apply to all employees, except for those who work from home or have a single employee who has no contact with anyone else.
Even ahead of Wednesday’s vote, the board members stressed that their revised rules were temporary and they appointed a subcommittee to continue working on the revisions.
© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
