Does employer have duty to keep remote workplace safe from criminal conduct?
A California employer has a statutory duty to provide its employees with a safe and healthful workplace. During the pandemic, employers have fulfilled that duty largely by adopting policies and practices designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus in the workplace.
The duty to provide a safe workplace also includes the duty to take reasonable steps to prevent workplace violence. In Colonial Van & Storage, Inc. v. Superior Court, the California Court of Appeal recently ruled that this aspect of the duty does not “include ensuring that an off‑site meeting place for coworkers and business associates like an employee’s private residence is safe from third-party criminal harm.” This, said the court, was “an issue of law that is of paramount importance to public welfare during the current COVID-19 pandemic,” when so many employees have been working remotely.
Click here to read the full article written by SCMV Shareholder Dan Eaton and published in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
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