Does SB 553 Apply to Your Cleaning Contractor?

What does Labor Code section 6401.9 require?

The law sets out a working program, not a policy statement. The plan may be a stand-alone document or a separate section of the employer's IIPP, and it has to be in effect and available to employees, not just on file. Training is required when the plan is first established and annually after that.

Who is exempt, and why most cleaning contractors are not

The exemptions are narrow. The law does not apply to health care facilities and operations covered by Cal/OSHA's separate health care workplace violence standard, Title 8 section 3342, to employees teleworking from a place of their choosing outside the employer's control, to law enforcement agencies, or to facilities run by the state corrections department. It also excludes places of employment with fewer than 10 employees present at any time that are not accessible to the public, if the employer complies with section 3203.

A janitorial company rarely fits. Its employees work across many client buildings, many of them open to the public, and the small-workplace exemption is judged place by place. Even a contractor whose crews clean inside hospitals usually needs a plan for its other sites.

How workplace violence reaches night cleaning crews

The law sorts workplace violence into four types, and cleaners can meet all of them. Evening and weekend shifts, working alone, unlocked entrances and isolated spaces such as parking structures and loading docks raise the risk.

• Type 1: violence by someone with no legitimate business at the site, such as a trespasser met during an evening shift
• Type 2: violence by customers, clients, patients or visitors, such as a tenant or member of the public in a lobby
• Type 3: violence by a current or former employee, supervisor or manager
• Type 4: violence by someone who has a personal relationship with the employee and follows them to work

How should the building and the cleaning contractor coordinate?

The contractor's plan must describe how it coordinates with other employers on the site, and the host has good reasons to cooperate: its own plan covers its own staff, and one incident can involve both workforces. Coordination is mostly about sharing information in both directions.

Agree on how the night crew reaches building security, how doors are locked and checked during the shift, whether cleaners may let anyone in, where they go if a threat appears and how incidents are reported to each employer. Each employer logs incidents affecting its own employees, so a lobby confrontation involving a cleaner and a building employee may belong in two logs.

What to ask your cleaning contractor about its plan

These questions also test whether the plan reaches the people working in your building or stays in an office binder.

• Who is responsible for the plan, and how can your site contact reach them?
• How does the plan cover cleaners working alone or late at night in your building?
• How does a cleaner report a threat during a shift, and who do they call first?
• How will the contractor tell you about incidents at your property?
• Has the crew assigned to your site completed training on the plan, and when is it repeated?
• How are your building's security and emergency procedures built into the contractor's plan?

How EBS works in access-controlled buildings

EBS has cleaning experience in high-security and access-controlled facilities, including government and secure-facility operations, where security protocols, confidentiality and accountability are part of the job. Its people are background-checked and uniformed, so they are identifiable on site, and field supervisors keep in contact with the client. Escalation support and a 24/7 priority line give night crews a route to help. Door and alarm procedures, security contacts and incident reporting can be written into the site scope at the walkthrough.