California will keep workplace pandemic rules through 2022

By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California workplace regulators have extended mandatory pay for workers affected by the coronavirus through the end of 2022. They acted more than two months after state lawmakers restored similar benefits through September. The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board kept the regulations Thursday. Its chairman says the workplace rules and pay are still needed and that another surge may be imminent. Business groups say the dual benefits are redundant and confusing, while employee advocates say they are essential to allowing sick workers to stay home. The debate comes as a highly transmissible omicron variant becomes dominant in California and across the U.S.