Essential Industries Allege New CalOSHA Standards Threaten Food Security and Vaccine Distribution

A coalition of essential industries, including the agricultural industry and broader business community, has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court detailing the detrimental impact the Newsom Administration’s new Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) will have on food security and vaccine distribution. The ETS, which were hastily written and promulgated by CalOSHA with little input from the affected industries, imposes such a significant burden on businesses that it will likely shut down production and processing of food products and close pharmacies located in grocery stores, which have been tasked by the federal government with distributing COVID-19 vaccines to the communities they serve.

“Businesses’ most important priority is the health and safety of their employees and customers, and they have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in mitigation protections. At the same time, myriad city, county, state and federal mandates on workplace safety continue to be strictly enforced. The new ETS issued by CalOSHA and approved by Governor Newsom, while well-intentioned, may delay rapid distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and create food shortages across the state and potentially nationwide. We are joining other industries involved in essential service sectors in acting to prevent these new regulations from delaying life-saving vaccines to our communities and food and dairy products to store shelves and dinner tables,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, which is a plaintiff in the suit. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit also include Western Growers, the California Farm Bureau Federation, Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, California Association of Winegrape Growers, and Ventura County Agricultural Association.

The regulations mandated by the ETS create significant new obligations and liabilities for employers, and subject well-meaning California farmers and other businesses to additional enforcement actions and substantial penalties. The practical effect of these emergency standards is to shift the public health and economic costs of COVID-19 monitoring, investigation, compliance and remediation onto employers, all without any consideration of the financial damage inflicted on businesses and practical impact on food and vaccine distribution.

While the ETS create a significant financial burden for already beleaguered businesses, it also mandates employee exclusion from the workplace for 10 days after the last known exposure, without consideration of mitigating factors or a negative COVID-19 test. These broad mandates could force food production and processing plants to shut down for weeks and close in-store pharmacies that have common break rooms, store aisles and parking lots as the grocery store in which they reside. In-store pharmacies could be closed for days, if not weeks, even if employees test negative or have acquired immunity through a vaccine.

Read an FAQ prepared by the plaintiffs here: https://www.wga.com/sites/default/files/CalOSHA%20ETS%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf