If you are trying to fight off the effects of COVID-19 variants in the workplace, the Department of Industrial Relations (“DIR”) has offered up a bit of alphabet soup in the form of updated ETS FAQ’s, more formally known as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) regarding Revised COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards.

In April, we shared that the California Occupational Safety & Health Standards (“Cal/OSHA”) Board voted to revise the COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards (“ETS”) for a third time. Those changes went into effect on May 6, 2022. The revised FAQ’s now give employers additional insight into the DIR’s interpretation of those revisions.

For those of us who are sick of reading and don’t want to read the long form FAQ’s in 16 sub-parts, the DIR has your remedy — a link to a “shorter” set of FAQ’s.

For the most part, the shorter FAQ’s reiterate our April summary of the changes to the ETS. However, we wanted to share a point that we did not previously hone in on —  the DIR has clarified that the simplified definition of “COVID-19 test” now makes it easier for employers and employees to use self-administered and self-read tests because a video or observation of the entire test process is no longer necessary. Now, an employee is only required to show a date/time-stamped photo of the test result when such a test is required. Simplification? Sounds good to us!

Please don’t hesitate to contact any of us if you have questions about application of the revised ETS to your workplace situation. And stay well out there!