SB 553 Workplace Violence Prevention: Plan, Training, and Log

California’s Senate Bill 553 requires nearly every employer in the state to build and maintain a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, train employees on it, log incidents, and review the plan on a set schedule. Employer requirements under SB 553 took effect July 1, 2024, with no grace period, so any covered employer without a compliant plan is already exposed to Cal/OSHA citations.¹

Which Employers Are Covered

The law reaches almost every California employer regardless of size or industry. If you have employees working at a location you control, plan on being covered.

The exemptions are narrow. Hospitals and healthcare settings already regulated under Cal/OSHA’s separate standard for healthcare (Title 8, Section 3342) are not double-covered. Law enforcement agencies and correctional facilities are excluded. Employees teleworking from a location the employer does not control fall outside the scope. And employers with fewer than ten employees at a worksite that is not accessible to the public may qualify for an exemption.

Multi-employer worksites carry a shared obligation. If you place workers at a client’s facility, or you host workers placed by a staffing agency, your written plan must describe how you will coordinate implementation with the other employers on site.²

What the Written Plan Must Contain

The centerpiece obligation is a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan. You can maintain it as a standalone document or fold it into your existing Injury and Illness Prevention Program as its own section.¹ Either way, it must be in effect at all times, cover every work area, and be tailored to the specific hazards of your operations. A generic template dropped in from a vendor is unlikely to hold up under a Cal/OSHA inspection.

The plan must include:

Names or job titles of the people responsible for implementing it.
Procedures for identifying and evaluating workplace violence hazards specific to your operations.
Methods for correcting identified hazards, whether through physical security, workflow changes, or staffing adjustments.
Procedures for how employees and management respond to actual or potential violence, including how reports are accepted and acted on.
Emergency response protocols, including evacuation and shelter-in-place for events like an active shooter.
Post-incident procedures covering investigation, medical care, and support for affected employees.
Coordination procedures for any multi-employer worksite.

The plan must be easily accessible to employees, their authorized representatives, and Cal/OSHA representatives at all times.¹

Doing the Hazard Assessment

Hazard identification is where many employers slip. It is not a one-time checklist. You need an ongoing process that evaluates your physical workspace, staffing patterns, history of incidents or threats, and the nature of your interactions with the public. Walk your facility the way a threat would. Where are the blind spots? Where could someone enter unchallenged? Which employees work alone or handle cash? The answers drive the corrective measures the plan has to spell out.

When You Have to Review and Update the Plan

You must formally review, and where necessary revise, the plan in three situations: at least annually on a scheduled basis, whenever a deficiency is observed or becomes apparent, and after any workplace violence incident.¹ The post-incident trigger is the one employers most often overlook. If an incident happens and you never revisit whether your plan failed somewhere, an inspector will notice.

Training Every Employee

Every employee must be trained on the plan. Training has to cover the plan itself, how to report incidents, and strategies for avoiding physical harm. Employees should walk out knowing who is responsible for the plan, how to report, and what to do in an emergency.²

Training is not one-and-done. Provide it when the plan is first established, when an employee is initially assigned to the workplace, and whenever you become aware of a new or previously unrecognized hazard. Sessions must give employees a chance to ask questions and provide feedback. Keep records of every session for at least one year.¹

The Violent Incident Log

SB 553 imposes a specific logging obligation on top of standard injury and illness records. You must maintain a violent incident log recording every qualifying threat or incident. Each entry should include the date, location, type of workplace violence, and severity. Personally identifiable information about the people involved is kept off the log to protect privacy.³

Retention differs by record. Violent incident logs must be kept at least five years. Training records must be kept at least one year. Records covering hazard identification, evaluation, correction, training, and incident logs must be made available to employees and their authorized representatives within 15 calendar days of a request, at no cost.²

After an Incident

When workplace violence injures an employee, obligations stack quickly. You must ensure the employee receives timely medical treatment through your workers’ compensation carrier, and you must give the injured employee notice of workers’ compensation eligibility within one working day of the incident.²

Beyond immediate care, investigate the incident, record it in the violent incident log, and determine what changes are needed to reduce future risk. If the incident produced serious injury or death, Cal/OSHA requires you to report it as soon as possible and no later than eight hours after the event. For any injury resulting in lost time beyond the day of the incident or requiring treatment beyond first aid, complete the Employer’s Report of Occupational Injury or Illness (Form 5020) and record it on Cal/OSHA Form 300.² This is also the moment the plan-review trigger fires: evaluate whether the plan handled the situation, and revise it where it fell short.

Employee Participation and Anti-Retaliation

Employees have the right to participate in developing and implementing the plan, whether through meetings, safety committees, surveys, or other feedback channels.⁴ Employers cannot punish employees for reporting workplace violence, raising safety concerns, or participating in the prevention process. Employees can request a free copy of the written plan and access to related records, including incident logs and hazard assessments, within 15 calendar days.²

Restraining Orders on Behalf of Employees (SB 428)

A companion statute, Senate Bill 428, expanded an employer’s ability to seek court protection for a threatened worker. Effective January 1, 2025, SB 428 lets an employer petition for a temporary restraining order and injunction when an employee has suffered harassment, unlawful violence, or a credible threat of violence that can reasonably be connected to the workplace.⁵

For harassment-based petitions, the employer must show by clear and convincing evidence that the employee suffered harassment, that great or irreparable harm would result without the order, and that the respondent’s conduct served no legitimate purpose. Courts cannot issue orders that would restrict speech or activities protected under the National Labor Relations Act or comparable California public employee labor laws.⁵ If a customer, former employee, or someone tied to an employee’s personal life is making workplace-connected threats, you do not have to wait for an act of violence before going to court.

Penalties for Noncompliance

Cal/OSHA enforces SB 553 through its existing inspection and citation authority. Violations fall into classifications with different maximum penalties, adjusted effective January 1, 2025:

General violation: maximum penalty of $16,285.⁶
Serious violation, where there is a realistic possibility that death or serious physical harm could result: maximum penalty of $25,000.⁷
Willful violation, committed intentionally and knowingly or with awareness of a hazard and no reasonable effort to correct it: minimum $11,632, maximum $162,851.⁷

Having no written plan is the most obvious citation trigger, but inadequate hazard assessments, missing training records, and incomplete incident logs each generate their own violations. An employer with multiple deficiencies can face stacked citations from a single inspection. If you operate across state lines, do not assume that federal OSHA compliance covers you here; there is no federal workplace violence prevention standard, and California’s requirements are substantially more specific.

1
California Department of Industrial Relations. FACT SHEET – Workplace Violence Prevention in General Industry
2
California Department of Industrial Relations. Cal/OSHA Workplace Violence Prevention for General Industry (Non-Health Care Settings)
3
California Department of Industrial Relations. Workplace Violent Incident Log (Title 8 CCR 3343(d)) – Sample Log
4
LegiScan. Bill Text: California SB553
5
LegiScan. Bill Text: California SB428
6
Department of Industrial Relations. Classification of Violations and Definitions
7
California Department of Industrial Relations. Cal/OSHA Increases Civil Penalty Amounts for 2025