Lesson Last Updated: March 21, 2025

Lesson Highlights

After living through a global pandemic that (at the very least) threw workplaces into chaos, it makes more sense than ever to have illness and injury prevention programs in place. However, it’s not just a “smart to have,” it’s also legally required for almost all employers! 

In this lesson, we’ll cover:

• The general Illness and Injury Prevention Program requirements;
• California’s COVID-19 prevention requirements; and
• The newest prevention requirement: the Workplace Violence Prevention Plan.

General Illness and Injury Prevention Program Requirements

Effective July 1, 1991, ALL California employers with at least one (1) employee are required to have an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program (“IIPP”), and it needs to be in a form that’s understood by all employees. With very limited exceptions, the IIPP is required to be in writing, and it needs to address the following nine (9) topics:

1. Responsibility;
2. Compliance;
3. Communication;
4. Hazard assessment;
5. Accident/exposure investigation;
6. Hazard correction;
7. Training and instruction;
8. Access; and
9. Recordkeeping. [1]

Within each topic, there are specific requirements for information that needs to be communicated in the IIPP, so it’s important to understand that this is almost always a fairly long document. You almost certainly cannot meet your legal obligations by simply stuffing these nine (9) items into your employee handbook. 

It’s also worth noting that Cal/OSHA, the government body in charge of ensuring employee safety at work, publishes a list of its most frequently issued citations each year, and for the years of 2015 through 2022, the #1 most cited standard was related to insufficient IIPPs (or lack thereof). [2] We don’t have the data for 2023 yet, but it’s likely that this will be the #1 most cited standard yet again. 

Penalties for failure to comply vary, but the maximum penalty for “General and Regulatory violations, including Posting and Recordkeeping” violations is $15,873 per violation, as of 2024! [3] So even though there will be significant time and/or money spent to create your IIPP, it will be cheaper than a Cal/OSHA violation, and way less of a headache!

California’s COVID-19 Prevention Requirements

On December 15, 2022, California adopted non-emergency COVID-19 prevention regulations that apply to most workplaces, and which took effect on February 3, 2023. These regulations would remain in effect at least until February 3, 2025, at which point they would either be re-issued or sunsetted.

The regulations included some of the same requirements found in the COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards from during the pandemic, but they’ve also eased some requirements, making it easier for employers to comply.

However, as of February 2025, these regulations have officially sunset. That means that there are no longer any specific set of state-imposed regulatory requirements relating to COVID-19 prevention in the workplace.

Employers are still required to establish, implement, and maintain an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program (which is what this lesson is all about!). If an employer identifies COVID-19 as a workplace hazard at their place of employment, then the employer must identify, evaluate, and correct the unsafe or unhealthy conditions, work practices, or work procedures that are associated with COVID-19, just like it would any other type of unsafe/unhealthy condition; the difference is that there are no longer COVID-19-specific rules to follow in doing this.

The only portion of the old rules that is still in effect is Subsection 3205(j) of the law, which deals with reporting and recordkeeping. This subsection remains in effect until February 3, 2026. It requires that employers keep a record of and track all COVID-19 cases with the employee's name, contact information, occupation, location where the employee worked, the date of the last day at the workplace, and the date of the positive COVID-19 test and/or COVID-19 diagnosis. These records must be retained for two years beyond the period in which the "record is necessary to meet the requirements of [this law]." That last part is a little bit complicated and dependent on the number of COVID-19 cases in the workplace, so employers would be wise to speak to an attorney about their record maintenance requirements if they have had COVID-19 cases in their workplace.

This subsection also requires that information on COVID-19 cases be provided to the local health department with jurisdiction over the workplace, CDPH, the Division, and NIOSH immediately upon request, and when required by law. [4]

Workplace Violence Prevention Plan

As of July 1, 2024, the majority of employers in California must establish, implement, and maintain a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (“WVPP”) that addresses the following eleven (11) topics:

1. Responsibility;
2. Procedures for implementation;
3. Compliance;
4. Communication;
5. Hazard assessment;
6. Emergency response protocols;
7. Accident investigation and post-incident response;
8. Hazard correction;
9. Training and instruction;
10. Review protocols; and
11. Recordkeeping. 

Similar to the IIPP, within each topic of the WVPP, there are specific requirements for information that needs to be communicated. The WVPP can be addressed either directly in the IIPP or in a separate document. [5] There will be penalties for non-compliance, and undoubtedly, this will also become a frequently cited standard for Cal/OSHA.

Unlike the IIPP requirements, there are some exceptions to who needs to have a WVPP. They are as follows:

• Certain healthcare facilities that are required to follow more rigorous workplace violence prevention program standards (which were pre-existing to this law);
• Employers with employees teleworking from locations of the employees’ choice and not under the control of their employer; and 
• Places of employment with fewer than ten (10) employees and that are not accessible to the public. 

But of course, even if your workplace is exempt from the WVPP requirements, you are not exempt from the other two (2) requirements we covered here. So hopefully you get the picture: every single employer in California needs a Comprehensive Illness and Injury Prevention Program. 

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This Lesson’s Sources:

[1] Cal. Code Regs. tit. 8 § 3203

[2] Department of Industrial Relations, Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards

[3] Department of Industrial Relations, Cal/OSHA Increases Civil Penalty Amounts for 2024

[4] Cal. Code Regs. tit. 8 § 3205

[5] Cal. Lab. Code § 6401.9