Many local cities and counties throughout California are enacting orders requiring employers to provide personal protective equipment to employees among other items.  For example, as of midnight on April 9, 2020, the Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti’s Worker Protection Order becomes effective.  The order requires the following in Los Angeles City:

  • Employees still working must wear fact coverings over their noes and mouths while performing their work. The face coverings only have to be fabric, such as scarves and bandanas (not medical-grade masks or N95 respirators).  Employer must provide at their own expense the non-medical grade face covering for the employees.
  • All essential, non-medical workers required to wear these face coverings must frequently (at least once a day) wash any reusable face coverings.
  • Single-use covering must be discarded into trash receptacles.
  • Employers must permit employees to wash their hand at least every 30 minutes.
  • Employee must have access to clean, sanitary restrooms, stocked with all necessary cleaning products or sanitizing agents required to observe hand sanitation protocols recommended by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
  • Employers must implement social distancing measures for customers, visitors, and employees that provides a six-foot buffer between individuals.
  • All customers and visitors to a business must wear face coverings (again, not medical-grade, just some type of fabric)
  • Business owners may refuse admission or service to anyone who fails to wear a face cover.
  • The Mayor encourages, but does not require, all retail businesses to install plexiglass to separate cashiers and customers at all points of sale.
  • The Order is effective until the end of the local emergency period.

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has also issued a Safer At Home Order on March 21, 2020.  This Order applies to all retail food facilities, including grocery stores and restaurants.  The Order requires the following:

  • Enforced social distancing.
  • Provide public access to hand washing facilities with soap and water or to hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol.
  • Post a sign a visible place at all public entries that instructs members of the public to not enter if they have symptoms of respiratory illness, including fever or cough. Click here to download the sign.
  • Follow communicable disease control recommendations provided by the LA County Department of Public Health: http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/
  • Sets forth requirements for a food employee that has tested positive for COVID-19 or is presumed positive based on symptoms associated with COVID-19.

The California Restaurant Association provides a great resource local city and county restrictions throughout California at its website located here: https://www.calrest.org/coronavirus-resources#restrictions

Employers need to check with their local city and county government orders to ensure compliance.