Senator Cortese Pushes SB 553 in Statement on Pleasanton Home Depot Shooting

Press Release

by CC News April 19, 2023

written by CC News April 19, 2023

Senator Dave Cortese issued the following statement about Tuesday’s shooting death of a 26-year-old employee who attempted to stop an active robbery at Home Depot in Pleasanton:

“The killing of Blake Mohs was horrific and my heart goes out to all his family, friends, coworkers and community,” said Senator Cortese (D-San Jose). “As lawmakers, we can’t send condolences and then do nothing else. Let’s get to work now on putting new safeguards in place to train and prepare workers for outbreaks of workplace violence. It’s our duty to protect Californians and prevent more senseless tragedy.”

BACKGROUND: Senator Cortese represents Senate District 15, which includes the community of Pleasanton where the deadly Home Depot shooting occurred. Senator Cortese is also the author of SB 553, which would establish new workplace violence prevention standards targeting these exact type of attacks.

Fatal workplace shootings are too common. Last year in SD 15, a young Safeway worker was shot and killed after confronting suspects engaged in robbery. The year before that in the District, a transit worker with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority killed nine people in a San Jose rail yard, marking the deadliest mass shooting in the Bay Area.

SB 553 creates articulated workplace violence prevention plans, data collection on workplace violence incidents, effective training, and expanded employee protections.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 553, as amended, Cortese. Occupational safety: workplace violence: restraining orders and workplace violence prevention plan.

Existing law authorizes any employer, whose employee has suffered unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence from any individual that can reasonably be construed to be carried out or to have been carried out at the workplace, to seek a temporary restraining order and an order after hearing on behalf of the employee and other employees at the workplace, as described.

This bill would also authorize a collective bargaining representative of an employee, as described above, to seek a temporary restraining order and an order after hearing on behalf of the employee and other employees at the workplace, as described. The bill would make various conforming changes.

Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, imposes safety responsibilities on employers and employees, including the requirement that an employer establish, implement, and maintain an effective injury prevention program, and makes specified violations of these provisions a crime. The act is enforced by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health within the Department of Industrial Relations, including the enforcement of standards adopted by the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board.

This bill would require every employer, as defined, to also establish, implement, and maintain maintain, at all times in all of the employer’s facilities, a workplace violence prevention plan as part of the injury prevention program, as described. The bill would require the employer to record information in a violent incident log about every incident, postincident response, and workplace violence injury investigation required to be performed as part of the workplace violence prevention plan, as described. The bill would require the employer to establish and implement a system to review, at least annually and in conjunction with employees and their collective bargaining representatives, if any, the effectiveness of the workplace violence prevention plan, as described. The bill would require the employer to provide effective training to employees that addresses the workplace violence risks that employees may reasonably anticipate to encounter in their jobs, as described.

The bill would require records of workplace violence hazard identification, evaluation, and correction to be created and maintained in accordance with specified law, except as provided. The bill would provide that an employer shall not prohibit an employee from, and shall not take punitive or retaliatory action against an employee for, seeking assistance and intervention from local emergency services or law enforcement when a violent incident occurs.

Because this bill would expand the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

CC News

Publisher of ContraCosta.news and host of several Podcast Shows focusing on Contra Costa County and State of California.

Senator Cortese Pushes SB 553 in Statement on Pleasanton Home Depot Shooting

Press Release

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

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