On September 29, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill (AB) No. 1775, which sets workplace safety training and certification standards for companies that produce live events at publicly owned and operated venues. The law goes into effect on January 1, 2023.

AB 1775 requires employees involved in the setting up, operation, or tearing down of a live event at a public events venue for an entertainment events vendor to have complied with specified training, certification, and workforce requirements. Specifically, these employees must have completed prescribed trainings of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

For vendor employees, the entertainment events vendor must certify the employees’ completion of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s (Cal/OSHA) ten-hour course (Cal/OSHA-10), OSHA’s ten-hour general entertainment safety training (OSHA-10/General Entertainment Safety), or the OSHA-10 course on workplace safety and health as applicable to their occupations. For a department head or lead, certification is required regarding completion of the Cal/OSHA thirty-hour course (Cal/OSHA-30), the OSHA-30/General Entertainment Safety training, or the OSHA-30 course on workplace safety and health. In the alternative for department heads, the entertainment events vendor can provide proof of certification through the Entertainment Technician Certification Program or “certif[y] that its employees and any subcontractors’ employees meet the conditions for a skilled and trained workforce.” The certification must be in writing, verifying that the training was completed and that “certification requirements of all employees, and any subcontractor’s employees, who will work on the setting up, operation, or tearing down of [an] event” have been met.

Cal/OSHA is empowered to enforce these provisions by issuing a citation and a notice of civil penalty. The new law requires that Cal/OSHA assess penalties only against an entertainment events vendor and not against an employee of an entertainment events vendor or an employee of a subcontractor.

Key Takeaways

California’s entertainment vendors are required to certify in writing that they have verified the training, completion, and certification requirements of all employees, and any subcontractor’s employees, who will work on the setting up, operation, or tearing down of an event at their public events venues. Nothing in this law relieves employers from conducting any other training required under Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations and complying with any other occupational safety and health law or regulation, as applicable.