SB 553 Compliance Requirements: What Your Business Needs
California SB 553 has three core requirements: a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, a Violent Incident Log, and annual employee training. This guide breaks down exactly what each one requires — the specific elements, fields, topics, and formats — with everything sourced to Labor Code §6401.9.
If you haven’t read our overview yet, start with What Is SB 553? for background on who must comply.
Requirement 1: Written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (WVPP)
The WVPP is the foundation. §6401.9(c)(1) requires it to be in writing, in effect at all times, available and easily accessible to employees and their representatives, and specific to the hazards and corrective measures for each work area and operation. It may be written as a stand-alone section inside your Injury and Illness Prevention Program or kept as a separate document.
The Required Contents: §6401.9(c)(2)(A)–(M)
The statute lists the plan’s contents as thirteen subparagraphs. Your WVPP must include all of them:
(A) Responsible Persons
Names or job titles of the people responsible for implementing the plan. Employees need to know exactly who to contact.
(B) Employee Involvement
Effective procedures to obtain the active involvement of employees and their representatives in developing and implementing the plan — including in identifying hazards, designing training, and reporting incidents. Employees have a role in building the plan, not just receiving it.
(C) Coordination with Other Employers
If you share a worksite with other businesses (office building, shopping center, co-working space), you need methods for coordinating implementation with them — landlords, co-tenants, contractors.
(D) Incident Reporting and Anti-Retaliation
Procedures for accepting and responding to reports of workplace violence, and a prohibition on retaliation against employees who report. Employees must be able to report a threat or incident and see what happens next.
(E) Compliance Procedures
How you’ll ensure supervisors and employees follow the plan — oversight, recognition, retraining, consequences.
(F) Communication
How workplace violence hazards, corrective actions, and the plan itself are communicated to employees. Think: how does a new hazard get reported up and communicated out?
(G) Emergency Response
Procedures to respond to actual or potential workplace violence emergencies:
- How to alert employees of a threat
- Evacuation or shelter-in-place plans
- How to contact law enforcement
- Post-incident response steps
These procedures need to be realistic for your workplace. A restaurant’s emergency response looks very different from an office building’s.
(H) Training Procedures
How you’ll develop and provide the training subdivision (e) requires. This is the element most “11-element” summaries skip — it is in the statute, at (c)(2)(H).
(I) Hazard Identification and Evaluation
Procedures to identify and evaluate workplace violence hazards, including scheduled periodic inspections, inspections when the plan is established, and evaluation after incidents and when new hazards become known.
(J) Hazard Correction
Procedures to correct identified hazards in a timely manner. This can include engineering controls (physical barriers, lighting, cameras), work practice controls (buddy systems, check-in procedures), and administrative controls (scheduling changes, policy adjustments).
(K) Post-Incident Response and Investigation
What happens after a workplace violence incident: investigation steps, support for affected employees, and follow-up actions.
(L) Plan Review
Procedures to review the plan’s effectiveness — at least annually, and also when a deficiency is identified, after a workplace violence incident, and with employee involvement. Record each review; an unrecorded review can’t be shown.
(M) Whatever Else the Division Requires
A catch-all: procedures or other information the division requires as necessary and appropriate to protect employee health and safety.
Format Requirements
- Must be in writing and in effect at all times
- Must be available and easily accessible to employees and their representatives
- Must be specific to the hazards and corrective measures of each work area and operation
- May be a stand-alone section in your existing IIPP or a separate document
A one-paragraph handbook policy prohibiting workplace violence contains almost none of the thirteen required components — that’s why a harassment policy doesn’t double as a WVPP, whatever binder it lives in.
Requirement 2: Violent Incident Log
Every workplace violence incident must be recorded in a Violent Incident Log. This is separate from your OSHA 300 Log.
What Triggers a Log Entry
Any incident of workplace violence as defined by the law — including threats, not just physical assaults. Incidents that cause no injury still get logged. The entry is based on information from the employees involved, witness statements, and the investigation findings.
Required Fields for Each Entry — §6401.9(d)(2)
| Field | What to Record |
|---|---|
| Date, time, and location | When and where the incident occurred |
| Workplace violence type | Type 1, 2, 3, or 4 — more than one can apply |
| Detailed description | Narrative of what happened |
| Who committed the violence | Classification: customer, stranger, coworker, personal relation — not a name |
| Circumstances | What was happening at the time — rush hour, cash handling, working alone |
| Where it occurred | Classification: work area, parking lot, other location |
| Incident type | Threat, physical attack, weapon involved, sexual assault, or other |
| Consequences | Whether security or law enforcement was contacted and their response, actions taken to protect employees from a continuing threat |
| Who completed the entry | Name, job title, and the date completed |
Privacy Requirements
The log must omit personal identifying information sufficient to identify any person involved — victims, perpetrators, or witnesses. Describe what happened without naming names.
Retention and Access
- Logs must be maintained for a minimum of 5 years
- Copies of records must be provided to employees and their representatives, without cost, within 15 calendar days of a request
- Records must also be available to Cal/OSHA on request
Set the log up before the first incident. What §6401.9(f) requires you to produce within 15 days, you want to be keeping all along — scrambling to reconstruct records after a request is how the deadline gets missed.
Free Violent Incident Log template. One entry page per incident, with every field §6401.9(d)(2) lists — the type checkboxes, the classification checklists, and the no-identifying-information rule on the cover. PDF, no account. Request the log template →
Requirement 3: Annual Employee Training
When Training Must Happen
- Initial training: when the plan is first established
- Annual training: every year thereafter, for every covered employee
- Additional training under §6401.9(e)(3): when a new or previously unrecognized hazard is identified, and when the plan changes
The statute names no separate new-hire trigger — a new employee is covered by the annual cycle — but training at onboarding is the practical way to make sure nobody works most of a year untrained. For businesses with high turnover (retail, food service), build it into onboarding.
The Required Content: §6401.9(e)(2)
The statute lists the training content in six lettered items:
- The employer’s plan — how to obtain a free copy, and how to participate in developing and implementing it
- The definitions and requirements of the law, including the four types of workplace violence
- How to report workplace violence incidents or concerns to the employer or law enforcement without fear of reprisal
- The workplace violence hazards specific to the employees’ jobs, the corrective measures the employer has implemented, how to seek assistance to prevent or respond to violence, and strategies to avoid physical harm
- The violent incident log and how to obtain copies of the records §6401.9(f) requires
- An opportunity for interactive questions and answers with a person knowledgeable about the employer’s plan
Format Requirements
- Training material must be appropriate in content and vocabulary to the educational level, literacy, and language of employees — the statute’s own words
- The interactive Q&A opportunity is a required item — a self-paced video with no way to ask questions doesn’t provide it
- No minimum duration is specified
- In-person, online, or hybrid all work, as long as the interactive opportunity is real
See our SB 553 training requirements guide for formats that do and don’t provide the required elements.
Record-Keeping Summary
All retention periods below are §6401.9(f)’s own minimums, not suggestions:
| Record | Retention | Access |
|---|---|---|
| WVPP (current version) | Available and easily accessible at all times | Employees, reps, Cal/OSHA |
| Hazard identification, evaluation, and correction records | 5 years minimum | Employees and reps: within 15 calendar days, without cost |
| Violent Incident Logs | 5 years minimum | Employees and reps: within 15 calendar days, without cost |
| Incident investigation records | 5 years minimum | Cal/OSHA on request |
| Training records | 1 year minimum | Employees and reps: within 15 calendar days, without cost |
Note the split: training records carry a one-year minimum, everything else five. Don’t conflate the two.
What’s Changing: The Proposed Permanent Standard
Cal/OSHA is developing a permanent workplace violence prevention regulation — proposed §3343 — through the Standards Board’s rulemaking process. Until a regulation is adopted, the Labor Code requirements on this page are what applies. Proposed text can change before adoption; we’ll update this guide when the standard is finalized.
Adoption is due by December 31, 2026, and the current draft is dated July 22, 2026. Our guide to the proposed §3343 covers where the rulemaking stands and every change in that draft, verified against the draft text.
Getting Started
SB 553 compliance isn’t one-and-done. You need a written plan with the (A)–(M) contents, an incident logging system, annual training, and records kept to the §6401.9(f) retention periods.
Start with the plan: Cal/OSHA publishes a free model plan, and our WVPP template walkthrough covers how to fill in every section. CompliantCA is building the operating layer for programs like this — the records, reminders, and exports that show a plan is running, not just written.
Sources & References
- Labor Code §6401.9 — the operative statute for general industry
- SB 553 Full Text — California Legislature
- Workplace Violence Prevention in General Industry — Cal/OSHA
- Workplace Violence Prevention in General Industry — rulemaking — Cal/OSHA Standards Board; the general-industry regulation is still being developed
- Model Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (Template) — Cal/OSHA
- Model Violent Incident Log (Template) — Cal/OSHA
Frequently asked questions
What are the required elements of a WVPP?
Labor Code §6401.9(c)(2) lists the plan's contents as subparagraphs (A) through (M): responsible persons, employee involvement procedures, coordination with other employers, incident reporting and anti-retaliation procedures, compliance procedures, communication procedures, emergency response procedures, training procedures, hazard identification and evaluation, hazard correction, post-incident response and investigation, plan effectiveness review, and anything else the division requires.
What must be recorded in a Violent Incident Log?
§6401.9(d) lists the entry contents: date, time, and location; the violence type or types; a detailed description; a classification of who committed the violence; classifications of the circumstances and of where it occurred; the type of incident; the consequences, including whether security or law enforcement was contacted and their response, and actions taken to protect employees from a continuing threat; and who completed the entry. The log must omit personal identifying information.
How long must Violent Incident Logs be retained?
Violent Incident Logs must be maintained for a minimum of 5 years. Copies of records must be provided to employees and their representatives, without cost, within 15 calendar days of a request.
Does a self-paced training video count as SB 553 training?
Not on its own. §6401.9(e)(2)(F) requires an opportunity for interactive questions and answers with someone knowledgeable about the plan. A self-paced video with no way to ask questions does not provide that opportunity. A video paired with a live Q&A session, or with a designated knowledgeable person employees can reach, does.
What topics must SB 553 training cover?
§6401.9(e)(2) lists six lettered items: the plan itself and how to obtain and participate in it, the definitions and requirements of the law, how to report incidents without fear of reprisal, the hazards specific to the employees' jobs and the corrective measures taken, the violent incident log and how to obtain the records the employer keeps, and an opportunity for interactive questions and answers.