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SB-432 Workplace safety: lodging establishments: housekeeping.(2011-2012)

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SB432:v96#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  August 15, 2011
Amended  IN  Assembly  June 15, 2011
Amended  IN  Senate  May 31, 2011

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2011–2012 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 432

Introduced  by  Senator De León

February 16, 2011

An act to add Section 6714 to the Labor Code, relating to workplace safety.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 432, as amended, De León. Workplace safety: lodging establishments: housekeeping.
Existing law establishes the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board within the Department of Industrial Relations and requires the standards board to adopt and, through the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, to enforce all occupational safety and health standards. Under existing law, a knowing or negligent violation of any standard, which is deemed to be a serious violation, constitutes a misdemeanor.
This bill would require the standards board to adopt a standard, no later than December 1, 2012, relating to housekeeping in transient lodging establishments requiring the use of fitted sheets on beds or the use of an approved alternative to assist in sheet installation, as specified, and the use of long-handled tools for cleaning bathrooms. The bill would require the division to enforce the standard in the ordinary course of its duties pursuant to existing authority. This bill would require that the standard be operative as of September 1, 2013, and be fully complied with by December 31, 2015.
Because this bill would require the standards board to adopt a new standard, the serious violation of which would, when effective, create a new 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.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 6714 is added to the Labor Code, to read:

6714.
 (a) The standards board Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board shall, no later than September December 1, 2012, adopt an occupational safety and health standard for lodging establishment housekeeping, with an operative date of September 1, 2013, to be fully complied with by December 31, 2015. The standard shall apply to all hotels, motels, and other similar transient lodging establishments in California. The standard shall apply to bed sheets and long handled tools, and shall include the following requirements:
(1) (A) The use of a fitted sheet, instead of a flat sheet, as the bottom sheet on all beds within the lodging establishment. For the purpose of this section, a “fitted sheet” means a bed sheet containing elastic or similar material sewn into each of the four corners that allows the sheet to stay in place over the mattress. Fitted sheets may be purchased in the normal course of the replacement of bed linens, so long as full compliance with the standard is met no later than December 31, 2015.
(B) As an alternative to the use of a fitted sheet, the use of equipment, such as a wedge, or other device, work practice, or method that assists in sheet installation, if the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board determines during the standard adoption process that the use of the alternative equipment, work practice, or method that assists in sheet installation provides the equivalent health and safety protection provided by the use of a fitted sheet.
(2) The use of long-handled tools such as mops or similar devices in order to eliminate the practice by housekeepers of working in a stooped, kneeling, or squatting position in order to clean bathroom floors, walls, tubs, toilets, and other bathroom surfaces.
(b) Nothing in this section limits the authority of the board Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to grant a variance pursuant to Section 143 or any other provision of law.
(c) The division shall enforce this section in the ordinary course of its duties pursuant to authority set forth in this part.
(d) For the purpose of this section, a “fitted sheet” means a bed sheet containing elastic or similar material sewn into each of the four corners that allows the sheet to stay in place over the mattress.

SEC. 2.

 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.