Occupational safety and health: employee refusal to perform hazardous tasks.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary and digest do not provide specific details on what happens after the law becomes effective.

Employee Safety: Refusing Hazardous Tasks

This law allows employees in California to refuse dangerous tasks and protects them from employer punishment.

What This Bill Does

• Allows an employee to say no to a task if it breaks safety rules or could hurt the worker or others, as long as they first try telling their boss about the danger.
• Ensures that employees get paid while waiting for the dangerous situation to be fixed.
• Stops employers from punishing workers who refuse unsafe tasks.

Who It Names or Affects

• Employees in California
• Employers in California

Terms To Know

Employee

A person who works for an employer and gets paid to do a job.

Hazardous task

Work that could cause injury or illness if done incorrectly.

Limits and Unknowns

• Does not specify what happens after the bill becomes law.
• Excludes domestic work employees from its protections.

Official Summary Text

AB 1371, as introduced, Sharp-Collins.
Occupational safety and health: employee refusal to perform hazardous tasks.
Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, requires employers to comply with certain safety and health standards, as specified, and charges the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the Department of Industrial Relations with enforcement of the act. Existing law prohibits an employer from laying off or discharging an employee for refusing to perform work that would violate prescribed safety standards where the violation would create a real and apparent hazard to the employee or other employees. Existing law defines “employee” for purposes of those provisions to include a domestic work employee, except as specified.
This bill would revise and recast those provisions to, among other things, allow an employee, acting in good faith, to refuse to perform a tasked assigned by an employer if it would violate those
prescribed safety standards or if the employee has a reasonable apprehension that the performance of the assigned task would result in injury or illness to the employee or other employees. The bill would make the employee’s refusal contingent on the employee or another employee, if reasonably practical, having communicated or attempted to notify the employer of the safety or health risk and the employer having failed to provide a response that is reasonably calculated to allay the employee’s concerns. The bill would require the employer to pay the employee full wages during their scheduled work hours until, among other things, the employee can reasonably conclude that the task will no longer result in the risk of serious injury or illness to the employee or other employees. The bill would prohibit an employer from using an employee’s refusal to perform an assigned task as grounds for any disciplinary action, and would make certain retaliation protections applicable to the bill’s provisions. The bill would
delete the provision defining “employee” to include a domestic work employee.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF