Calif. Adopts Regulations on Worker Occupational Safety

Last year’s workers’ compensation benefit increase bill (AB 749) eliminated the state’s loss control certification unit as of Dec. 31, 2002, replacing it with a new “Worker Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program, and a Loss Control Services Coordinator position (LC §6354.7), according to the California Workers Compensation Institute (CWCI). The statute calls for the program and the new position to be funded by fees collected from workers’ comp insurers through the “Workers’ Occupational Safety and Health Education Fund, or “WOSHEF.”

Under the new law, insurers will pay the greater of $100 or 0.0286 percent of the amount they paid out in workers’ comp indemnity for the previous calendar year. The state recently approved regulations (CCR § 339.8) providing further details on the fee collection, as well as a form that insurers must submit with their fees. The regulations took effect Jan. 21, 2003, and the deadline for submitting the fees is April 1, 2003. Copies of the regulations and the new form are available on the Department of Industrial Relations Web site: http://www.gov/dwc/DWCPropRegs/CHSWCFundFeeRegs.html.

The program is being overseen by the Commission on Health, Safety & Workers’ Compensation.