Agricultural businesses are looking at a variety of new rules and requirements that are going to require time and resources. President and CEO of the Western Agricultural Processors Association, Roger Isom said the paid sick leave expansion is certainly going to have an impact. The amount of mandated paid sick leave is increasing from three days to five days. A new workplace violence standard is also going to impact ag businesses.
“We knew Cal/OSHA was working on one, but now the Legislature has passed a bill mandating it and the governor signed it,” Isom noted. “There will be a new workplace violence standard that we’re all going to have to write plans for and do training. Whether you’ve had issues there or not.”
Other new rules are also on the horizon. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) is on the verge of adopting a new indoor heat illness standard. “That’s going to be something else that growers and hullers and anybody with any kind of farm shop or gin or huller are going to have to address. So, there’s a lot coming,” said Isom.
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Brian German
Ag News Director / AgNet West