The Proposed §3343 Standard: What Would Change from SB 553

California’s workplace violence prevention law, Labor Code §6401.9, has been in force since July 1, 2024. But SB 553 also directed Cal/OSHA to turn the statute into a full Title 8 regulation — the proposed §3343 — and directed the Standards Board to adopt it no later than December 31, 2026.

That rulemaking is now in its final stretch. Cal/OSHA released a revised draft of the proposed §3343 on July 22, 2026, and the comment window closed August 17, 2026. This page tracks where the rulemaking stands and what the current draft would change from the law you are complying with today. Every claim below was checked against the draft text itself, not summaries of it.

One thing to hold onto while reading: a draft is not a requirement. Until a final regulation is adopted and takes effect, Labor Code §6401.9 is what applies. Our SB 553 requirements guide covers the current law.

Where the Rulemaking Stands

The July 22 draft is still a discussion draft — the formal proposal, public hearing, and adoption vote come next, all before the December 31 deadline. Every draft and meeting notice is on the Standards Board rulemaking page.

What Applies Today

Nothing about the rulemaking changes your current obligations. Labor Code §6401.9 requires a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, a violent incident log, and annual training — covered in detail in our guide to SB 553. The draft regulation keeps that same three-part structure. What it adds is specificity: definitions, named hazard factors, spelled-out procedures, and new record types.

What the July 2026 Draft Would Change

Each item below is a difference between the July 22, 2026 draft and Labor Code §6401.9 as written. Draft text can change before adoption.

The small-workplace exception gets narrower

This is the change that would move the most employers into coverage.

Under the statute, a shop that occasionally has 10 people on site can still qualify on a day it has fewer. Under the draft, one day above the line in the past year ends the exemption. The draft also lets the Division order an exempt employer to comply anyway, through an Order to Take Special Action.

Coverage extends to employer-provided transportation

The statute already covers all places of employment and employer-provided housing. The draft adds employer-provided transportation under the employer’s control. The July draft added the “under the employer’s control” limit in response to stakeholder comments — the April version had no such limit.

Workplace violence hazards get a named factor list

The statute requires you to identify and evaluate hazards but never defines what a workplace violence hazard is. The draft defines the term and lists factors to consider, including: employees working alone or in isolated locations; poor illumination or blind spots; entries where unauthorized access can occur; work areas lacking escape routes; exchange of money or valuable goods; frequent contact with the public; uncontrolled public access; late-night or early-morning work; inadequate staffing; inadequate security staffing; and selling or providing alcohol, marijuana, or pharmaceutical drugs.

If the final text keeps this list, hazard assessments will have a concrete checklist where the statute left a blank.

Controls get definitions — and a feasibility duty

The draft defines engineering controls with twelve examples (access controls, alarms, lighting, monitored entries, protected workstations, and more) and work practice controls (staffing levels based on the employer’s hazard assessment, dedicated security personnel, visitor entry control, and others). It then requires controls to be implemented “to eliminate or minimize employee exposure to identified workplace violence hazards to the extent feasible.”

Reporting Type 3 violence can’t stop at the supervisor

For worker-on-worker (Type 3) violence, the draft requires that reports can be made to a designated person who is not a direct supervisor where the supervisor is involved in the incident — or, added in the July draft, where the direct supervisor has not adequately addressed the hazard.

Post-incident response gets spelled out

The statute requires “procedures for postincident response and investigation” and stops there. The draft enumerates what those procedures must include: immediate medical care or first aid; identifying everyone involved; offering trauma counseling — counseling through workers’ compensation, an employee assistance program, or initial employer-provided counseling satisfies this; a debriefing as soon as possible; evaluating which hazards contributed; checking whether existing corrective measures worked; and asking involved employees what would have prevented the incident.

Multi-employer worksites get explicit duties

The draft requires methods to coordinate the plan with other employers on a shared worksite, and — new — the employer whose employees experienced an incident must provide a copy of the violent incident log entry to the controlling employer.

Two new record types, kept five years

The statute’s record retention carries over unchanged: hazard identification records, incident logs, and investigation records for five years; training records for one year; and copies to employees within 15 calendar days of a request. The draft adds two record types the statute never named, both kept five years:

• Employee reports of workplace violence threats, incidents, or concerns — including anonymous ones
• The employer’s evaluations of those reports and the corrective actions taken

That pairing matters: it is a record not just that someone reported something, but of what the employer did about it.

Training answers get a clock

Training requirements mostly track the statute. One addition: training not given in person must provide for interactive questions to be answered within one business day by someone knowledgeable about the plan.

What Moved Between the April and July Drafts

The July 22 draft walked several April provisions back — useful for judging which way the rulemaking is heading:

• Transportation narrowed. Employer-provided transportation is covered only where it is under the employer’s control.
• Stalking removed from the hazard-factor list. Stakeholders argued stalking is an example of workplace violence, not a hazard; Cal/OSHA says it will appear in a future guidance document instead. Threats remain covered by the definitions either way.
• Staffing wording re-anchored. “Appropriate staffing levels” is now tied to the employer’s own hazard assessment, replacing April’s “maintain order in the facility” phrasing.
• A social-media exception deleted. April’s draft excused employers from threats made on personal social media they could not reasonably know about; July removed the exception to align the definition with the statute.

What to Do Now

Nothing new is required of you yet. The practical read of the draft is this: it rewards employers whose current program actually runs. Every addition — hazard factors, report evaluations, post-incident steps — assumes the statute’s plan, log, and training are already in place and producing records.

So the useful move today is a gap check, not a rewrite: put your current program next to the draft and mark where you already comply, where the draft would ask for more, and what you would need to start keeping. When the final standard is adopted, you will be adjusting details instead of starting over.

Get one email when the permanent standard becomes law. No newsletter — one email when the Standards Board adopts the final standard, saying what changed and when it takes effect. You also get our free comparison sheet and gap checklist now: every change described above, side by side with the current requirements, with room to mark where your program stands. Sign up for the proposed-§3343 adoption alert →

Sources & References

• Workplace Violence Prevention in General Industry — rulemaking page, all drafts and meeting notices — Cal/OSHA Standards Board
• Labor Code §6401.9 — the operative statute
• SB 553 Full Text — California Legislature
• Cal/OSHA Workplace Violence Prevention Guidance — Cal/OSHA