California Quota Regulations: Changes to Safety Compliance Standards 2022

California Quota Regulations: Changes to Safety Compliance Standards 2022

The California governor passed AB 701 on September 22, 2021. This new law will go into effect January 2022. It applies to any California employer with 100 or more workers in a single warehouse center or 1,000+ in multiple warehouse centers within the state.

This new law seeks to make quotas easier to manage for employees. Employers must provide a written description of quotas required for each employee, including:

The quota descriptions are required at the time of hiring, or within 30 days of the law going into effect. To maintain safety compliance, any quotas enforced cannot prevent employees from taking meal or rest breaks, including restroom breaks. The quotas also cannot prevent employees from following OSHA regulations.

Employee Protections in the New Law

With this new law, employees can request work speed data from the most recent 90-day period if they believe the quota mandate was violated. This includes current and former employees.

If any disciplinary action happens within 90-days of an employee requesting this data, the action will be seen as retaliatory. The same goes for disciplinary action within 90-days of an employee complaining to an employer or state agency about quota demands.

Employees can also request injunctive relief to bring an employer into compliance with the new law. This allows them to recover costs and attorney fees lost during the process.

What Does it Mean for Your Business?

With this new quota law going into effect, it’s important for employers to provide full quota requirements at the time of hire. No disciplinary action is allowed for quotas that are not disclosed or that prevent employees from taking breaks.

This means taking a hard look at current quota demands. You want to ensure that requirements can meet the standards of the law for your average employee.

This new law also makes it important for employers to focus on safety management. Worker’s Comp and OSHA divisions in California are required to notify the Labor Commissioner if injury rates reach 1.5 times higher than the average for the industry. The Commissioner oversees enforcing the new quota laws.

With no data to show how this will affect current safety compliance, it’s more important than ever to provide safety training for employees. It’s also important to keep clear records of the training to show the efforts made to reduce accidents in the workplace.

Be Proactive with Your Safety Compliance

While this new law sounds like a lot of work for you, there are tools you can put in place to help you maintain proper training and record keeping. Infinit-I Workforce Solutions can take some of the stress from new regulations so you can focus on creating a safe and productive workplace.

We want to help you reduce workplace accidents, relieve regulatory pressure, and maintain productivity. Request a free demo to learn how we can bring balance to your warehouse.