California occupational health board: Unvaccinated employees must continue to wear mask or distance

New rules proposed by the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board would keep worker mask mandates in place throughout the state for at least the next few months, imposing strict requirements on employers and employees for when masks must be worn and when they are allowed to be taken off.

The proposed rules, part of a set of "general industry safety orders" to be voted on next week, would stipulate that face coverings must continue to be "worn by employees over the nose and mouth when indoors, when outdoors and less than six feet away from another person, and where required by orders from" health authorities. 

Among several exceptions to the rule is one in which employees can remove their masks when "alone in a room," as well as "when all persons in a room are fully vaccinated and do not have COVID-19 symptoms."

Individuals who have physical or mental disabilities that prevent them from wearing a mask may also doff them, but those workers must stay "at least six feet apart from all other persons unless the unmasked employee is either fully vaccinated or tested at least weekly for COVID-19."

The rules also direct that California employers, when designing workplace COVID-19 safety rules, "shall treat all persons, regardless of symptoms or negative COVID-19 test results, as potentially infectious."