There are two bills related to COVID-19 employer tracking and reporting requirements: Assembly Bill 685 and Senate Bill 1159 have been enrolled and are pending the Governor’s signature. AB 685 includes workplace safety provisions regarding COVID-19 exposures. The bill creates new reporting requirements to employees, exclusive employee representatives, and where applicable, the employer of any subcontracted employees.

If an employer or representative of the employer receives a notice of potential exposure to COVID-19, the employer shall take all of the following actions within one business day of the notice of potential exposure:

(1) Provide written notice to all employees, and employers of subcontracted employees, who were on the premises at the same worksite as the qualifying individual within the infectious period. This can be in a manner the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information.

(2) Provide a written notice to the exclusive representative, if any, of employees under paragraph (1)

(3) Provide all employees who may have been exposed and the exclusive representative information regarding COVID-19 related benefits to which the employees may be entitled to (eg federal, state, local, WC) and options for exposed employees including COVID-19 related leave, company sick leave, state-mandated leave, supplemental sick leave, or negotiated leave provisions

(4) Notify all employees and the employers of subcontracted employees and the exclusive representative on the employer’s disinfection and safety plan, if any, per the guidelines of the federal Centers for Disease Control

The notice required in section (2) above shall contain the information as would be required in an incident report in a Cal/OSHA Form 300 injury and illness log. Notifications required shall not impact any determination of whether or not the illness is work related.

In addition to the above noted notifications, the employer must also report the following to the local public health agency:

If an employer is notified of the number of cases that meet the definition of a COVID-19 outbreak, as defined by the State Department of Public Health, within 48 hours, the employer shall notify the local public health agency in the jurisdiction of the worksite. This shall include the names, number, occupation, and worksite of employees who meet the definition of a qualifying individual. A qualifying individual in considered a person who has any of the following: a laboratory confirmed case of COVID-19 as defined by the State Department of Public Health, a positive COVID-19 diagnosis from a licensed health care provider, a COVID-19 related order to isolate provided by a public health official, or died due to COVID-19 in the determination of a county public health department or per inclusion in the COVID-19 statistics of a county. An employer shall also report the business address and NAICS code of the worksite where the qualifying individuals work. An employer that has an outbreak subject to this section shall continue to give notice to the local health department of any subsequent laboratory-confirmed cases at the worksite

SB 1159 imposes new reporting requirements to the claims administrator relating to COVID-19 exposures.

When an employer knows or reasonably should know that an employee tested positive, the employer shall report to the TPA in writing within 3 business days the following:

  • An employee tested positive. No personally identifiable info, unless employee has asserted it was work related or filed a claim
  • The date of the positive test (date specimen collected)
  • The specific address or addresses of the employee’s specific place of employment during the 14 day period preceding the date of the employee's positive test.
  • The highest number of employees who reported to work at each specific place of employment in the 45 day period preceding the last day the employee worked at each specific place of employment.

The claims administrator shall use this information to determine if an outbreak has occurred. To calculate the number of employees at a specific place of employment, the TPA shall utilize the data reported for the first employee who is part of the outbreak, or for claims between July 6 and the effective date of this section. Any employer who is aware of an employee testing positive on or after July 6th forward shall report to their claims administrator in writing within 30 business days of the effective date of this section, all of the data noted above. For purposes of reporting the highest number of employees who reported to work at each specific place of employment, initially this shall be between July 6th through the effective date of this section, and then continuing based on the 45 day period noted above. This shall be used to determine if an outbreak has occurred from July 6th forward for the purpose of applying the presumption.

Any employer or person on behalf of the employer who submits false or misleading information or fails to submit information when reporting is subject to a civil penalty up to $10k by the Labor Commissioner.