Most vaccinated California workers must keep masks on

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Conflicted California workplace regulators approved controversial rules that allow workers to go maskless only if every employee in a room is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The new rules will be reviewed over the next ten days before implementation.

Another part of the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board decision on Thursday included easing social distancing requirements for businesses by July 31 if the employer agrees to supply staff with respirator masks.

But the Cal/OSHA voard made clear that the regulations are only a stopgap while a three-person subcommittee considers further easing pandemic rules in coming weeks or months.

The board initially voted 4-to-3 to reject any changes to current rules.

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But chairman David Thomas said that would have left employers with existing regulations, which require masks for all employees, along with social distancing and partitions between employees in certain circumstances.

Moments later, the seven-member board unanimously adopted the revised regulations while a three-member subcommittee considers more changes.

"It’s better than the previous one, because that’s what we’re going back to" if the board didn’t act, Thomas said. "We don’t want to leave the last one in place when this is better than that."

Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease physician, and professor of medicine at UCSF, says the newly approved rules pose profound social problems and hopes the board will revise them to be more closely aligned with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The CDC guidance says fully vaccinated people can now skip face coverings and distancing in nearly all situations and the state is set to follow that recommendation on June 15.

"We need to follow the science on the vaccines. We need to embrace their effectiveness, and embrace what the CDC said, because they're right," Gandhi said.

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In downtown Martinez, Lasalle and Michelle Strong own Firehouse Brew and Grill, where all but one of their 20 person staff is fully vaccinated.

"I'm not really sure how that would affect their workflow and our workflow around them, and it just makes it more confusing to regulate our staff," Michelle Strong said.

"What we don't want is people looking at others in a certain way," her husband, Lasalle Strong, added.

The off-again, on-again decisions came after major business groups and dozens of individuals spent hours urging the board to further lift pandemic regulations.

"We have to create reasonable and enforceable standards," said board member Nola Kennedy, an initial no vote. "I just don’t think this proposal is there yet."

For some members who initially rejected the revision, the deal-killer was a requirement that employers stockpile the most effective N95 facemasks for employees who want them starting July 1.

For the business community, a spokesperson for the California Chamber of Commerce said there's concern that Newsom's envisioned reopening of California's economy won't go as smoothly, now that Cal/OSHA has voted for more strict workplace rules than the governor outlined in his reopening plan. 

Governor Gavin Newsom has the authority to override the new rules by executive order if he finds them too strict.

KTVU's Emma Goss contributed to this report.