If your company does not offer its staff a 401(k) plan, you need to be aware of deadlines for registering your employees in the CalSavers Retirement Savings Program. The program is designed to help California workers who do not have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan start socking away money for their retirement. Employers with…
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on and more employers bring staff back to the workplace, many businesses are considering implementing mandatory vaccination policies for seasonal flus as well as the coronavirus. A safe and widely accessible vaccine would allow businesses to open their workplaces again and start returning to a semblance of normalcy. But employers…
With more wildfires raging across the West, it’s not only homes that are being burned to the ground. Hundreds of business owners have seen their facilities succumb to the flames. If you have a business in an area at risk of wildfires, just like homeowners, you need to take steps to reduce your exposure and…
Governor Newsom has signed legislation that creates a new framework for COVID-19-related workers’ compensation claims. SB 1159, which takes effect immediately, partly replaces an executive order that Newsom made on March 18 and which expired on July 5. That order required all employees working outside the home who contracted COVID-19 be eligible for workers’ compensation…
A new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reports that driver assistance technologies, such as automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems, have been shown to reduce accident rates among large trucks. Increased use of these systems in these vehicles should prevent countless deaths and injuries and save millions of dollars. The U.S.…
Cal/OSHA has been conducting sweeps of employers in California to root out those who are not protecting their workers from COVID-19 exposure. The agency targeted companies in industries that have a heightened risk of exposure to the coronavirus, which resulted in 11 citations being issued. While Cal/OSHA has been inspecting facilities since April for COVID-19-related…
As wildfires continue raging throughout California, Cal/OSHA has issued a reminder to employers that they are required to protect their outdoor workers from smoke if the air quality index exceeds 151. Cal/OSHA has extended an emergency regulation it put in place in August 2019 through January 2021 as it works on a permanent regulation on…
A new law has come to the rescue of a number of freelance professions by exempting them from the onerous requirements of AB 5, which required most independent contractors to be classified as employees in California. Governor Gavin Newsom on Sept. 1 signed AB 2257 as an urgency measure, so that it took effect immediately…
While hacking by outsiders is posing a larger and more significant threat to companies of all sizes, the threat of insider jobs – particularly by disgruntled former employees – is often a bigger one. These attacks, carried out with malicious intent to hamstring a company’s operations, can cause serious problems. Take, for example, the following…
The number of COVID-19 workers’ compensation claims in California has seen a steady climb, reaching a total of 31,612 from when the pandemic started until the end of July, according to the latest figures from the Division of Workers’ Compensation. In July, 9,515 California workers filed COVID-19 workers’ compensation claims, as well as 74 coronavirus-related…