So much blood was splattered at San Jose’s Santa Clara Valley Light Rail worksite that State Senator Dave Cortese wore boots over his work shoes to tour the site.
On May 26, 2021, hours after the Bay Area’s most violent shooting of a generation, concerns swirled in Cortese’s mind. Could this have been prevented? What were the procedures for dealing with this type of emergency, and how could workers be better protected?
A disgruntled former railroad employee armed with three semi-automatic pistols killed nine of his colleagues before pointing one of them at himself. The shooting had a “significant effect” on state senators.
“I started to question what plans were in place to detect or prevent this kind of harm, but then I realized there really wasn’t that much,” said Cortese (Democrat, San Jose ) recently told The Times. “Nothing happened at all.”
Cortese has introduced a variety of safety measures, including: Senate Bill 1294a law was signed last year to establish wellness centers to provide mental health services to transit workers in an effort to prevent future tragedies.
Cortese says he continues to work to protect employees from workplace violence. Latest Law, SB 553. But critics say the bill goes too far.
Passed 29-8 by the state Senate on May 31, the bill requires employers to keep records of violent incidents, conduct proactive training for shooters, conduct shoplifting training for retail employees, Requires untrained employees to stop confrontation with shoplifters and assist in prosecution. A restraining order against an attacker.
Opponents of the bill, including Republican state senators and the California Retail Association, argued the bill endangered the lives of small business owners who had to hire security guards and was too broad to apply to all industries. ing.
Mr. Cortese’s bill, and the controversy it sparked, came amid a rise in workplace murders.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in December Workplace homicides will increase by more than 20% in 2021, with 481 deaths. This is the latest year for which data is available. The number is the highest in five years and surpassed 458 in 2017. Of the 2021 deaths, 387 will be from shootings. Cal/OSHA released the number of workplace homicides in California for 2021. 57 people, 42 of them killed by guns.
Figures for non-fatal workplace violence vary.U.S. Department of Justice published a report last year The report states that on average between 2015 and 2019, “1.3 million violent non-fatal workplace crimes occurred annually.”of Bureau of Labor Statistics It noted that in 2020, there were 37,060 non-fatal workplace injuries “resulting from intentional injury by another person.”
Cortese aims to combat violence with a plan to get employers, large and small, to develop workplace violence prevention strategies. He envisions plans to include security guards and workers whose job it is to find and stop thieves. This part of the bill was particularly controversial.
The senator said the point was to prevent non-security personnel from being drafted to stop shoplifters, adding: Don’t let the situation get in the way,” he said.
Cortese did not provide examples of such incidents, but there have been numerous high-profile incidents involving security guards and anti-lost officers in altercations.a San Francisco security guard shooting In April, he killed a shoplifter, sparking protests.
But Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Association, said independent stores with limited budgets “do not have the capacity” to have dedicated security guards.
Michelin said, “We are talking to small businesses and they say if they have to hire a security guard they will definitely close.” “They are barely holding out.”
Michelin disagrees with Cortese, who said the lack of minimum qualifications and requirements and an open interpretation of security guards is a “gift” that gives employers freedom.
As a result of that lack of clarity, she says, employees have been lumped together and the distinction between “lost prevention and shelving people” has largely disappeared.
SB 553 requires employers to develop a workplace violence prevention plan.
One of the most controversial parts of this plan has to do with the implementation of security protocols. Cortese said all employers should “review” at least some of their “dedicated safety officer” provisions.
An early version of the bill classified such positions as security guards, but has since been amended to include anti-lost and other security guards.
As Cortese’s bill is being considered, Cal/OSHA, the state’s governing body responsible for workplace safety regulations, is developing a set of standards that address issues such as: Preventing workplace violence — Ongoing since 2017.
The agency held three advisory meetings in 2017-2018, but only once since then.
“Cal/OSHA has been working on this effort for six years, and we’re finally getting to the point where we have a draft,” Cortese said. “With all this violence… do we really want to wait for OSHA to do something?”
Karen Fuller Tynan, a California/OSHA safety attorney, said the agency should be responsible for creating workplace rules, not individual lawmakers. “I think it’s unfair to blame the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) for the delay,” she said, as the agency’s plans were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. said.
He said he called the Cortese bill “not appropriate” and thought small businesses needed amendments.
Tainan said the bill should specifically address security personnel at companies with 50 or fewer employees.
“A 24-hour street corner mall is a different issue than a high-end retailer. You don’t have to apply a one-size-fits-all approach,” she said.
Cortese said the bill was “not final” and subject to change.
The bill passed the Senate on May 31, 29 to 8, and was read out in Congress for the first time the next day. SB 553 is scheduled to go before the Congressional Labor Committee on June 28, en route to Cortese’s approval and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.
