Sacramento, CA – Today, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Western States Council applauded Governor Gavin Newsom for signing AB 2693 (Reyes) into law. AB 2693 will extend the sunset date for AB 685 (Reyes-2020), the COVID-19 Notification and Reporting Bill, and its subsequent clean up legislation AB 654 (Reyes, 2021), until January 1, 2024. 2022 has already seen several waves of COVID-19 across California, illustrating why the state must stay vigilant and maintain access to information needed to respond to emerging surges this winter. The following statement may be attributed to Joe Duffle, President, UFCW 1167:
“AB 2693 continues California’s leadership in workplace protections by ensuring we can react immediately to prevent the virus from spreading throughout our workplaces, infecting working people and their families. COVID cases will continue to surge throughout the rest of the year, and there will be more variants in our future. It’s essential that we save lives by keeping workers aware of COVID workplace outbreaks.
“However, AB 2693 provides us with only a one year reprieve. This requirement is essential to California’s endemic strategy to protect workers and the public and California needs a more permanent policy in place. We will continue working towards a future where all workers are confident they are just as safe clocking into work as they are in their home.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2022
Contact: Jenna Thompson, 949.246.1620, [email protected]