Labor Week: Power Boost for Cal/OSHA, $5.8B Economic Development Project in KY & More

CA Boosts Cal/OSHA’s Power:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed legislation (SB 606) expanding the enforcement authority of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA). The new law, effective Jan. 1, 2022, establishes a rebuttable presumption that an employer who operates multiple worksites and is found to have safety violations at one of them has similar violations at others. The law also allows Cal/OSHA to cite “egregious” employers for each willful violation and treat each individual employee’s exposure to such a violation as a separate incident for the purpose of issuing fines and penalties, as well as grants Cal/OSHA greater subpoena power during an investigation. (SHRM)

KY Lands $5.8B EV Battery Manufacturing Plant Project:

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) announced last week that Ford Motor Corp. and South Korea-based SK Innovation will build two battery manufacturing plants in the state that will employ 5,000 people. The record $5.8 billion project, more than triple the state’s previous single largest economic development investment, will place the state on the leading edge of the electric vehicle industry, the governor said. (LEXINGTON HERALD LEADER)

WI to Spend $80M on Upgrading Unemployment System:

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) intends to direct up to $80 million in federal coronavirus funding toward updating the state’s outdated unemployment system. The news comes after Republicans, who control the state’s Legislature, repeatedly rejected the governor’s requests to use state taxpayer dollars to make the upgrades. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL [MADISON])

-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK