(a) Notwithstanding any other law, if, upon inspection or investigation, the division believes that an employer has willfully and egregiously violated an occupational safety or health standard, order, special order, or regulation, the division, with reasonable promptness, shall issue a citation to that employer for each egregious violation, and each instance of an employee exposed to that violation shall be considered a separate violation for purposes of the issuance of fines and penalties.

(b) For the purposes of this section, a violation is an “egregious violation” if one or more of the following is true about that employer or the willful violations committed by it:

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(1) The employer, intentionally, through conscious, voluntary action or inaction, made no reasonable effort to eliminate the known violation.

(2) The violations resulted in worker fatalities, a worksite catastrophe, or a large number of injuries or illnesses. For purposes of this paragraph, “catastrophe” means the inpatient hospitalization, regardless of duration, of three or more employees resulting from an injury, illness, or exposure caused by a workplace hazard or condition.

(3) The violations resulted in persistently high rates of worker injuries or illnesses.

(4) The employer has an extensive history of prior violations of this part.

(5) The employer has intentionally disregarded their health and safety responsibilities.

(6) The employer’s conduct, taken as a whole, amounts to clear bad faith in the performance of their duties under this part.

(7) The employer has committed a large number of violations so as to undermine significantly the effectiveness of any safety and health program that may be in place.

(c) The conduct underlying a violation determined to be egregious shall have occurred within the five years preceding a citation for an egregious violation. Once a violation is determined to be egregious, that determination shall remain in effect for only five years. After that five-year period has elapsed, additional evidence as described in subdivision (b) shall be required to support any subsequent citation for an egregious violation.

(d) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), each employee exposed to a violation described in subdivision (a) shall not be considered a separate violation for purposes of a questionnaire described by § 20101 of the Public Contract Code.

(e) This section shall not apply to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the California Correctional Health Care Services, or the State Department of State Hospitals.

(Added by Stats. 2021, Ch. 336, Sec. 2. (SB 606) Effective January 1, 2022.)