Article 7 - Workforce Wellness Centers - California Unemployment Insurance Code

Sections (2)

Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 305, Sec. 1. (SB 1294) Effective January 1, 2023. See conditional termination clause in Section 14007.

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a)Workplace shootings, especially in high-stress industries such as transit agencies, have resulted in numerous deaths across California.

(b)On May 26, 2021, a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) employee entered the Guadalupe rail yard and began a shooting rampage that killed nine of his coworkers before taking his own life. This shooting is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the San Francisco Bay area. The shooting occurred in locations integral to the operation of the light rail service, particularly adjacent to the Operational Control Center

room and the entry to the entire second floor of the administration center, resulting in a 13-week shut down of rail services.

(c)In response, the Legislature appropriated $20,000,000 to help the VTA and workers recover from the tragedy. The VTA was required by the state to create a joint labor management committee to provide recommendations for the use of those funds, including establishing a worker wellness center where workers and their families could receive onsite support and assistance, including peer-to-peer and trauma counseling and other mental health services.

§ 14121

Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 305, Sec. 1. (SB 1294) Effective January 1, 2023. See conditional termination clause in Section 14007.

(a)The board, or a research institution under contract with the board, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and the California Health and Human Services Agency, shall do all of the following:

(1)Draft a model plan for the development and implementation of a worker wellness center that provides services and support to transit workers and their families.

(2)Develop a plan to encourage the establishment of worker wellness center demonstration sites statewide in transit authorities to reduce workplace violence.

The plan shall include, but is not limited to:

(A)Analyzing the effectiveness of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s wellness center.

(B)Identifying interventions that promote employee wellness, prevention and early intervention, and peer-to-peer support.

(C)Examining violence prevention tactics in the workplace, including, but not limited to, developing a worker reporting structure that focuses on prevention and early intervention and ways to foster peer

reporting.

(D)Identifying no less than three transit authority locations in California where the model plan could be utilized to reduce workplace violence and increase worker wellness interventions.

(E)Identifying other high-stress industries that could benefit from utilizing workplace violence prevention tactics and worker wellness interventions.

(b)In developing the plans described in paragraphs

(1)and (2) of subdivision (a), the

board, or a research institution under contract with the board, shall consider all of the following:

(1)Funding sustainability, including the prospects for securing federal matching funds and billing private insurers.

(2)Linkages to county behavioral health services agencies.

(3)Ways to streamline workers’ compensation claims resulting from workplace violence.

(c)(1) Subject to paragraph (2), the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority shall provide the board, or a research institution under contract with the board, with data and outcomes from its wellness center that are necessary for the evaluation required by this section.

(2)Data and outcomes provided pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be aggregated and deidentified in a manner that prevents the identification of an individual who is a subject of that information.

(d)(1) Pursuant to Section

9795 of the Government Code, the board, or a research institution under contract with the board, shall prepare and send to the Legislature a report on the results of its evaluation conducted and plans developed pursuant to this section no later than two years following an appropriation for purposes of implementing this article.

(2)The requirement for submitting a report imposed by this subdivision is inoperative on January 1, 2028, pursuant to Section 10231.5 of

the Government Code.

(e)The board shall consult with the Division of Occupational Safety and Health to ensure plans or proposals comply with and do not conflict with occupational safety and health laws and regulations.

(f)This article shall become operative only upon an appropriation by the Legislature in the Budget Act or another statute for the purposes of implementing this article.