The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- California
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Cal. Const. art. IV, sec. 8(d) (urgency statute); Labor Code div. 4 (workers' compensation); Stats. 2020, ch. 85
- Issued
- 2020-09-17 Sept. 17, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-09-17 (urgency statute; section 3212.86 covers work performed on or after March 19, 2020) (read as 2020-09-17)
- End
- 2023-01-01 (each section 'shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2023, and as of that date is repealed') (read as 2023-01-01)
- In force
- Sept. 17, 2020 to Jan. 1, 2023
- Quarters
- 2020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Workplace rulesQuarantine and isolationStanding duty
- Addressees
- employers (all employers for section 3212.86; employers of five or more employees for section 3212.88); health-care and public-safety employers for section 3212.87
- Character
- workplace duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: California DUT-CA
Operative words
3212.88. (a) This section applies to employees who are not described in Section 3212.87, who test positive during an outbreak at the employee's specific place of employment, and whose employer has five or more employees.... (e) (1) An injury described in subdivision (b) is presumed to arise out of and in the course of the employment, except as provided in this subdivision.
Penalty
Workers' compensation liability without fault; the presumption binds the appeals board unless controverted (section 3212.88(e)(1)).
What it required
Made a COVID-19 infection contracted at work a presumptively compensable industrial injury for every employer of five or more employees on an outbreak at the place of employment, and for every employee for work performed March 19 to July 5, 2020, placing the cost of workplace transmission on the employer's workers' compensation account and giving every employer a direct statutory stake in the distancing, screening, masking and exclusion measures that prevented outbreaks.
Retrieval noteChaptered text as published by the Legislative Counsel: 'CHAPTER 85... [ Approved by Governor September 17, 2020. Filed with Secretary of State September 17, 2020.]'. Section 3212.86(b)(1)-(2): illness or death from COVID-19 is an 'injury' if the employee tested positive or was diagnosed within 14 days after a day of work at the employer's direction 'on or after March 19, 2020, and on or before July 5, 2020'. Section 3212.88(i) adds an employer reporting duty: when the employer knows or reasonably should know that an employee has tested positive, the 'employer shall report to their claims administrator in writing via electronic mail or facsimile within three business days'. The Governor's EO N-62-20 (May 6, 2020), which created the earlier presumption SB 1159 codified, is not in the library and is described by category only.