CALIFORNIA HEALTH FACILITIES MUST HAVE LIFTING POLICIES

Effective January 1, 2012, AB 1136 amended the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973 to require an employer to maintain a safe patient handling Policy for patient care units and to provide trained lift teams or staff trained in safe lifting techniques in most general acute care hospitals. The safe patient handling policy must require the replacement of manual lifting and transferring of patients with powered patient transfer devices, lifting devices or lift teams. As part of the injury and illness prevention programs required by existing regulations, employers are now required to adopt a patient protection and health care worker back and musculoskeletal injury prevention plan, which must include a safe patient handling policy component to protect patients and health care workers in health care facilities.

SAN FRANCISCO EMPLOYERS MAY NEED TO ACT QUICKLY TO COMPLY

An amendment to San Francisco’s Health Care Security Ordinance will be effective January 1, 2012.  Employers that use Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) to comply with the law will need to act quickly in response to this amendment.

CHANGES TO STATUTORY DISABILITY PLANS IN CALIFORNIA & NEW JERSEY

Effective January 1, 2012, there will be a number of changes to the statutory disability plans in California and New Jersey.

In California, the maximum weekly benefit amount for State Disability Insurance (SDI) and Paid Family Leave (PFL) will increase from $987 to $1,011.

NEW CALIFORNIA LAWS AFFECT LEAVES

California’s Governor has signed a few laws that affect leaves and workers’ compensation, including the following:

UPDATE ON STATE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENTS

Anyone who has worked for or with a multi-state employer knows that one of the most difficult aspects of absence management is keeping up with changes in state and local laws.   This posting is an effort to provide some of the more recent information about changes in state and local laws, including case law. 

Update on Same-Sex Marriage and Civil Unions

Earlier this year, this blog reported that Hawaii and Illinois had passed legislation recognizing civil unions.  Since then, Delaware and Rhode Island have also recognized civil unions and New York has recognized same-sex marriage.