CalChamber: Workplace Violence Prevention Guide

Which employers are covered by California’s workplace violence prevention standards for general industry?

Most California business are covered by the workplace violence prevention standards for general industry. Unless your organization or employees fall into one of the few narrow exemptions below, you must comply with these standards, which took effect on July 1, 2024.

California’s workplace violence prevention standards for general industry DO NOT APPLY TO:

Health care facilities, service categories and operations subject to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s (Cal/OSHA’s) Violence Prevention in Health Care regulation;
Other employers that comply with Cal/OSHA’s Violence Prevention in Health Care regulation;
Employees teleworking from a location of the employee’s choice, which is not under the employer’s control;
Worksites with less than 10 employees "at any given time" and that are “not accessible to the public”;
Facilities operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation; and
Law enforcement agencies.

Please note that the phrase “not accessible to the public” is not defined in the law and there is no current guidance for what this means. If you are unsure whether your business is accessible to the public, consult with legal counsel.

If your organization does not meet any of the exemptions above, then please click through the remaining tabs to learn your obligations under California’s workplace violence prevention standards for general industry.

CREATING YOUR PLAN

Employers subject to the California’s workplace violence prevention standards for general industry are required to create, maintain and implement a written workplace violence prevention plan (plan), which may either be incorporated as part of your Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) or be a separate document. In either approach, the plan must be readily available for review by employees, their representatives and Cal/OSHA. As this is highly customized to your business needs, there is no “out of the box” plan available; we have, however, created the following resources to efficiently guide you through this process.

Workplace Violence Prevention Checklist:
This document includes detailed instructions on how to properly establish compliant workplace violence prevention practices, including the plan, policy training, investigation, incident logs and recordkeeping.

Workplace Violence Prevention Plan Key Definitions:
This document contains terms that are required to be a part of your workplace violence prevention plan, including the four workplace violence types that will assist with plan development.

Workplace Violence Prevention Toolkit:
This toolkit comes with a workplace violence prevention plan template that you may customize to your worksites, as well as several forms designed to meet legal requirements in plan development.

Revisiting Your Workplace Violence Prevention Program for 2025 Webinar:
This webinar examines real-life scenarios and practical exercises to help you in completing all of the workplace violence prevention standards’ practical and legal requirements.

Workplace Violence Prevention Support:
This support service connects you directly with a CalChamber employment law expert to walk through:

Workplace Violence Prevention Toolkit and its various components.
Answers to your plan-specific questions.
Best practices to fit your specific business needs.

PLAN COMPONENTS

Getting Started:

The plan requires identification of personnel who will be responsible for plan implementation.
1. The identification may be limited to job titles as opposed to specific names.
2. If multiple personnel implement the plan, their roles in the plan must be clearly described.
The plan requires procedures for active involvement of all employees and their representatives, if any, in developing and implementing the plan.

Internal Reporting:

The plan must contain procedures that allow employees to report incidents, threats or concerns internally or to law enforcement.
The reporting procedure must include a statement that the employee is protected from retaliation for making the report.
The reporting procedure must also include how the employee’s report will be investigated and how the employer will inform employees of the investigation results.

Inspections:

The plan must include procedures for how the employer will identify and correct workplace violence hazards, including periodic inspections:
1. When the plan is first established.
2. After each workplace violence incident.
3. Whenever a new workplace violence hazard is discovered.
In addition to inspections, the plan itself must be reviewed under certain circumstances:
1. Annually.
2. When a deficiency in the plan is observed or apparent.
3. After each workplace violence incident.

Incident Report:

The plan must detail procedures for responding to actual or potential emergencies, including:
1. Effective means for alerting employees of the presence, location and nature of a workplace violence emergency.
2. Developing evacuation or shelter plans appropriate and feasible for the workplace.
3. How to obtain help from staff assigned to respond to workplace violence emergencies, or security, if available, or law enforcement.
The plan must also address what the employer will do post-incident, including investigating the incident.

Remaining Plan Provisions:

The plan must address multiemployer worksites and the roles of other employers and employees in the plan, if applicable.
The plan must include methods for ensuring compliance, such as:
1. Recognition and reward of safe practices.
2. Discipline for unsafe practices.
The plan must detail how the employer will develop and provide the required training on the plan.

Related Forms

From the Store:

TRAIN YOUR TEAM

Once your workplace violence prevention plan (plan) has been completed, you must train all of your covered employees on the following:

The employer's plan, how to obtain a copy of the employer's plan at no cost, and how to participate in developing and implementing the employer's plan;
The plan’s key definitions and requirements;
How to report workplace violence incidents or concerns to the employer or law enforcement without fear of reprisal;
Workplace violence hazards specific to the employees' jobs, the corrective measures the employer has implemented, how to seek assistance to prevent or respond to violence, and strategies to avoid physical harm; and
The violent incident log and how to obtain copies of records.

The training materials that you develop must be appropriate in content and vocabulary to the educational level, literacy and language of the employees.

This training must be conducted at the following times:

Upon initial plan implementation.
Annually thereafter.
Whenever you make changes to the plan and/or when a new threat has been recognized by the employer. In this circumstance, you need only train on the new change and/or threat.

Workplace Violence Prevention Checklist:
This document includes detailed instructions on how to properly establish compliant workplace violence prevention practices, including the plan, policy training, investigation, incident logs and recordkeeping.

Workplace Violence Prevention Toolkit:
This toolkit comes with a template workplace violence prevention plan training program that you may customize with your plan’s contents, as well as a training attendance record designed to meet the specific training recordkeeping requirements.

Revisiting Your Workplace Violence Prevention Program for 2025 Webinar:
This webinar examines real-life scenarios and practical exercises to help you in completing all of the workplace violence prevention standards’ practical and legal requirements.

Workplace Violence Prevention Training:
This course is designed to allow employers the ability to customize this mandatory training with easy-to-use tools, according to the specifics of your particular workplace violence prevention plan, or plans if you have multiple locations, and then assign the customized course to employees.

Workplace Violence Prevention Support:
This support service connects you directly with a CalChamber employment law expert to walk through:

Workplace Violence Prevention Toolkit and its various components.
Answers to your plan-specific questions.
Best practices to fit your specific business needs.

Related Forms

From the Store:

INVESTIGATION & INCIDENT LOGS

Employers must investigate all incidents of “workplace violence.” “Workplace violence” includes, but is not limited to, the following:

The threat or use of physical force against an employee that results in, or has a high likelihood of resulting in, injury, psychological trauma or stress, regardless of whether the employee sustains an injury.
An incident involving a threat or use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon, including the use of common objects as weapons, regardless of whether the employee sustains an injury.
The following four workplace violence types:
- “Type 1 violence,” which means workplace violence committed by a person who has no legitimate business at the worksite, and includes violent acts by anyone who enters the workplace or approaches workers with the intent to commit a crime.
- “Type 2 violence,” which means workplace violence directed at employees by customers, clients, patients, students, inmates or visitors.
- “Type 3 violence,” which means workplace violence against an employee by a present or former employee, supervisor or manager.
- “Type 4 violence,” which means workplace violence committed in the workplace by a person who does not work there, but has or is known to have had a personal relationship with an employee.

“Workplace violence” does not include lawful acts of self-defense or defense of others.

In addition to the written investigation results, the workplace violence incident must be recorded in a specific log. The workplace violence incident log should have identifying and medical information removed, and must include specific content. Utilize the Workplace Violence Incident Log to meet this requirement for every workplace violence incident.

Workplace Violence Prevention Toolkit and its various components.
Answers to your plan-specific questions.
Best practices to fit your specific business needs.

Related Forms

From the Store:

RECORDKEEPING REQUIREMENTS

Employers covered by California’s workplace violence prevention standards for general industry must maintain the following records for at least five years from the date of creation:

Workplace violence hazard identification, evaluation and correction.
Workplace violence incident logs.
Workplace violence incident investigations.

In addition, you must maintain workplace violence training records for one year from the date of training.

PLEASE NOTE: These records must be made available to Cal/OSHA upon request. Apart from investigation records, these records must be made available to employees and their representatives, upon request and without cost, for examination and copying within 15 calendar days of a request.

Need additional assistance or have questions? Preferred and executive members are encouraged to speak to our Labor Law Helpline.

Workplace Violence Prevention Toolkit and its various components.
Answers to your plan-specific questions.
Best practices to fit your specific business needs.