A guide for California workers about COVID rules

A new cough. The beginnings of a fever. A note from your boss about a COVID case at work.

As omicron ripples across California, workers are learning they’ve been exposed and coming down with symptoms. What happens next? There are rules employers and workers are supposed to follow to keep workplaces safe and limit the spread of the virus.

Most California workers working in person are covered by emergency temporary rules from the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, better known as Cal/OSHA. A subsection of workers, including some in health facilities, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, and drug treatment centers, are protected by workplace rules.

Here are the answers to some questions Californians might have about their rights in the workplace during the pandemic.

Sort of

If you get exposed to COVID at work, your employer is generally required by Cal/ OHSHA’s covid workplace rules to provide you with testing, at no cost, during paid time, unless you’ve recently recovered from COVID.

If your exposure is from outside of work, your employer is still required to provide testing at no cost to you, during paid time, if doing so would allow you to remain at work or return to work earlier under public health guidelines for isolation and quarantine, said Erika Monterroza, a spokesperson for the state Department of Industrial Relations.

Unvaccinated, symptomatic workers must be provided with tests by their employer, at no cost to themselves, during paid time, regardless of whether there is a known exposure.

It depends

If an outbreak happens at work, employers are generally required to immediately make testing available to workers who may have been exposed, at no cost to the workers. If you test positive, your employer is required to send you home with pay, and you should only return to work once you meet public health guidance for ending isolation.

If you were exposed but don’t immediately test positive, whether you get sent home from work depends on which category you fall into in the state public health department’s isolation and quarantine guidance.

If there’s an outbreak but you weren’t exposed — say, for example, you work in a different building from the people who have COVID — Cal/OSHA’s COVID workplace rules don’t prevent your boss from insisting you work in person, said Monterroza.

During outbreaks, employers are required to offer increased testing.

Workers must wear masks while working indoors, under a statewide mask mandate that went into effect in mid-December.

There are some exceptions, like for workers in a room by themselves, workers with a medical condition that prevents them from wearing a mask, and for when workers are actively eating or drinking.

Employers are responsible for ensuring their employees follow workplace mask rules. If an employer is not enforcing mask rules, workers can file a complaint to Cal/OSHA online or call the agency’s center that handles workers’ questions about COVID-19 at 833-5790927.

There are other ways for workers to address workplace safety issues, including mask usage. Workers are entitled to band together to raise a labor issue with their employer, said Stephen Knight, executive director of Worksafe, a statewide occupational safety organization.

“Anything you do to raise a labor issue with your employer together with other colleagues at work is protected activity under federal law,” Knight said, adding that it is safer for workers to raise issues collectively than to do so alone.

The statewide mask mandate extends to all indoor public settings, so customers coming into stores or gyms, for example, have to wear masks. Local law enforcement agencies are responsible for enforcing mask rules for customers, Monterroza said.

Probably not

Individual employers may opt to offer supplemental sick leave for COVID. Some localities require that companies provide supplemental COVID sick leave, said Hannah Sweiss, an attorney who counsels employers on how to comply with workplace COVID rules. Los Angeles, for example, requires large employers to offer extra sick leave. But there’s no statewide requirement that employers offer extra sick leave for COVID.

A statewide requirement that companies with more than 25 employees offer as much as 80 hours of supplemental sick leave related to COVID-19 expired in September.

Legislators and the Newsom administration are currently negotiating over bringing back extra paid sick leave for COVID, with the goal of an agreement in the next several weeks.

Again, if you get COVID from a work-related exposure, your employer is required to send you home, with pay. If your employer provides sick leave beyond the three days required by law, it can require you to use those additional sick days while you quarantine or recover.

However, you can’t be asked to use your three sick days to cover time out after a workplace exposure to COVID.