SB 553 for Performing Arts Organizations
Creating an effective workplace violence prevention plan
How can arts organizations take the lead in creating a safer environment for their staff, volunteers, and audiences?
Creating a workplace violence prevention plan is one important part of building a culture of safety within your organization… and the process of making one can even build comradery within your team! If you’re an arts organization based in California, you’re also legally required to comply with new state safety requirements that went into effect on July 1st, 2024.
This resource page was built to accompany the Performing Arts Readiness webinar “Workplace Violence Prevention for the Arts: Understanding Requirements of California’s SB553 and Beyond“, hosted by Majestic Collaborations in partnership with California for the Arts and featuring representatives from Cal/OSHA and the State Compensation Insurance Fund.
Whether you’re facing legal requirements or proactively enhancing safety, learn how to protect your organization and build resilience.
The Requirements
Who
All businesses in California with 10 or more employees are legally required to have a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan as of July 1st, 2024. In the performing arts, one of the first big question is: who counts as an employee?
The CA State Compensation Insurance Fund has created guidance to help you identify who counts as an employee versus an independent contractor. It’s fundamental that anyone operating in an employee capacity is an official employee of your business. If your business has more than 10 employees, you are legally beholden to the requirements of SB 553.
At the same time, many performing arts organizations do also work with volunteers and genuine temporary workers or independent contractors. These individuals are not technically covered by SB 553. Still, you may have other legal and ethical responsibilities in your relations with them, and it’s a good idea as part of your overall safety planning/training to evaluate Workplace Violence Prevention concerns.
What
SB 553 foresees the creation and regular updating of a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (WVPP). The WVPP should include:
- The names of persons responsible for implementing the WVPP
- Procedures for employee involvement in developing and implementing the plan
- Procedures to identify and evaluate workplace violence hazards and to correct any hazards identified
- Procedures for handling and responding to reports of workplace violence
- Plan for communicating with employees regarding workplace violence
The Cal-OSHA overview webpage, Fact Sheet for Employers (PDF) and WVPP Model Plan (.DOC) go into more detail about what to include in the written plan.
In addition to the written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (WVPP), under SB 553 employers must:
- Maintain a log of all incidents of workplace violence even if the incident did not result in injury*
- Provide employees with an initial WVPP training and annually thereafter, as well as training when new workplace violence hazards are identified
* This is a separate mandate from the California requirement, unrelated to SB 553, that all employers log and report incidents of serious injury, illness or death (more info on how to record and how to report these kinds of incidents).
How
You’re not alone as you develop your plan! Cal-OSHA hosts a fantastic resource portal that includes links to templates, a continually updated FAQ section, and more. The guidance relevant to performing arts organizations is available under: Workplace Violence Prevention for General Industry (Non-Health Care Settings)
California-based companies can even request a consultation directly with Cal/OSHA onsite or by phone. It’s just important that the person making the request has authority for the company. If you’re worried about exposing yourself to liability, know that the consultation branch is separate from the enforcement branch! It’s true that as part of their consultation, they will help identify hazards, and there is a set timeline within which you would need to correct any hazards found. Otherwise the issues will be forwarded to enforcement. But the entire goal of the consultation phase is to help you find and correct risks to improve the safety of your workplace.
State Compensation Insurance Fund may also be able to help with questions, even if you are not a planholder. This is a non-government company established by the state legislature in 1914. You can reach them at SafetySupport@scif.com
View/Download the CAL-OSHA Factsheets
These PDFs are useful overview documents, summarizing the requirements of SB 553 from the perspective of employers and employees respectively.
For Employers
For Workers
Writing An Effective WVPP
Especially for smaller arts organizations, it’s a good strategy to involve your entire team as you develop your workplace violence prevention plan (WVPP). That way you can shift the tone from thinking about safety plans and regulations as “requirements” to focusing on how they support your overall mission. It also lets you benefit from the distributed knowledge of people engaged in many different aspects of your events.
Case Study: WVPP Employee Training
California Center for the Arts, Escondido
During the webinar, Matthew Ché Kowal of Majestic Collaborations shared the a slide deck that he developed with the California Center for the Arts in Escondido to conduct WVPP training. Takeaways: design matters: create simple, clearly organized, attractive training materials. Inclusive communications are key if you know your staff, contractors, or volunteers are not all fluent in the language your organization tends to communicate in.
What is CA Senate Bill 553?
- Signed into law on September 30, 2023
- Amended Labor Code Section 6401.7 (LC 6401.7)
- Amended to add 6401.7(aX7)
- Employers (ER) required Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (WVPP) per LC 6401.9 New LC 6401.9 (a)-(i)
What is workplace violence?
Any act of violence or threat of violence that occurs in a place of employment
- Includes, but is not limited to:
- The threat or use of physical force against an employee
- An incident involving a threat or use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon
- Four workplace violence types: Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type 4
Workplace violence does not include actions considered lawful self-defense. The types of workplace violence are:
- Type 1: Workplace violence committed by a person who has no legitimate business at the workplace
- Type 2: Workplace violence directed at employees by customers, clients, or visitors
- Type 3: Workplace violence against an employee by a present or former employee
- Type 4: Workplace violence committed in the workplace by a person who does not work there but has a personal relationship with an employee
What does SB 553 mean for covered employers?
Covered employers must establish, implement, and mantain a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (WVPP). The WVPP may be incorporated into other safety plans, including an IIPP, or maintained separately. It must be:
- Written
- Available and accessible
- In effect at all times.
What are the WVPP requirements?
- Responsibility
- Employee active involvement
- Employee compliance
- Communication with employees
- Coordination willl other employers
- Incident reporting
- Emergency response proceduresWorkplace violence hazard identification and evaluation
- Workplace violence hazard correction
- Post-incident response and investigation
- Training and instruction
- On the WVPP
- Copy of WVPP
- Reporting
- Workplace violence hazards
- Violence incident log
- Q&A on WVPP
- Access to the written WVPP
- Record-keeping, including a Violence Incident Log
- Employee access to records
- Review and revision of the WVPP
- Annually
- When a deficiency is observed or becomes apparent
- After a workplace violence incident
What goes in a Violent Incident Log?
- Incident date, time, and location
- Type (1, 2, 3, and/or 4)
- Detailed description
- Classification
- Circumstances
- Incident characteristics
- Consequences, law enforcement
- Steps taken to protect employees
- Who completed the log
How is WVPP different from IIPP?
WVPP is required to have effective procedures to obtain active involvement of employees and authorized employee representatives in:
- Developing and implementing the plan
- Identifying, evaluating, and correcting workplace violence hazards
- Training
- Reporting and investigating
WVPP also requires the keeping of a violence incident log and has other recordkeeping requirements.
The Legislation… and How to Influence It
Read Senate Bill 553
While CAL-OSHA’s resources are a helpful place to start, every employer should really go through the text of CA Bill 553 itself to make sure they can justify how their WVPP fulfills the requirements of the law.
Provide Input to the Proposed Regulations
Also SB 553 is already law in California, the government has not yet issued specific guidance for how to implement the new standards. These Proposed Regulations are being developed through a process of feedback and evaluation whose next step is a meeting prior to the end of 2024. Your input and advocacy can help ensure the proposed regulations meet the unique needs of performing arts organizations.
Other Resources
The following resources are not specific to topics of workplace violence prevention plans or SB 553. However they do provide great perspective into a variety of issues faced by artists and performing arts workers.
The Art of Mass Gatherings Podcast explores the intersection of festivals and community resilience, focusing on the powerful role that arts and events can play in climate and disaster preparedness. Individual episodes each feature an invited guest and focus on a variety of topics in safety, accessibility, and sustainable event design.
Matt mentioned this podcast during the webinar. Created by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, the award-winning podcast ARTS. WORK. LIFE, features bold, untold stories from arts workers about what it’s like to work in the performing arts. We love their behind-the-scenes look at how fellow professionals are navigating industry challenges and thriving in the field, sharing both moments of failure and heartbreak as well as triumph and success.
The SB 553 webinar was brought to you by
