Cal/OSHA's Proposed SB 606 Egregious and Enterprise-wide Rule

Picture a hypothetical California company with five locations. A few years back, the safety manager wrote one heat illness procedure and rolled it out at every site. It's consistent and easy to train on. It also has a gap that doesn't fully meet the standard. Under today's rules, if Cal/OSHA finds that gap, it is mostly a problem for the site that was inspected. Under a rule Cal/OSHA has now proposed, that one inspection could reach all five sites.

On October 16, 2026, the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) posted a Notice of Proposed Action to implement SB 606. That bill was signed in 2021. It amended Labor Code 6317 and added 6317.8. DIR says regulations are needed because SB 606 has no enforcement mechanism of its own. The proposal would amend Title 8 sections 332.4, 334, 335, 336, and 340.4.

Enterprise-wide violations

Proposed section 334(g) applies to employers with employees at more than one worksite. It sets up a rebuttable presumption that a violation is enterprise-wide in two situations. The first is when the employer has a written policy or procedure that applies to more than one worksite and violates a standard. The second is when Cal/OSHA has evidence of a pattern or practice of the same violation at more than one worksite.

This is where the cost adds up. Under proposed 336(k), the proposed penalty is multiplied by the number of worksites covered by the citation. As proposed, the multiplied Enterprise-wide penalty is capped at $162,851 (the last line of proposed 336(k)). DIR notes that the presumption means a business may be cited for each location without a separate inspection at each location. The usual Good Faith and History reductions would not apply to Enterprise-wide penalties. Only the Size adjustment would, under proposed 336(d)(13). Proposed 336(k)(3) separately says Good Faith, Size and History will be assessed based on the worksites covered, so this is a point worth asking DIR to clarify in comments.

Abatement credit changes too. Today a General violation automatically gets a 50% reduction on the presumption that it will be fixed on time. The proposal removes that automatic credit for Enterprise-wide General violations (336(e)(1)). You could still earn the 50% credit, but only by abating during the inspection before the citation is issued, or by submitting a signed abatement statement within 10 working days after the abatement period (336(e)(2)). If some sites miss the abatement deadline, proposed 336(f) would assess a separate failure-to-abate penalty for each of those worksites. That way the daily penalty is prorated to the sites still out.

Egregious violations

Under proposed 334(f), an Egregious violation starts as a Willful violation and also meets at least one more criterion within the five years before the citation. One is a history of one or more Repeat, Willful or Egregious violations, five or more Serious violations, or ten or more General or Regulatory violations. Others are intentional disregard of safety duties, such as having no operative injury and illness prevention program, or conduct amounting to clear bad faith. The last is that the violation or prior violations resulted in a fatality, a catastrophe, or five or more injuries or illnesses, or that the employer has an experience modifier above 125%.

Proposed 336(i) would issue a separate citation and penalty for each employee exposed. DIR gives its own example in the Notice: a $10,000 penalty with 10 employees exposed would be $100,000 under the proposal. An Egregious citation would also stay in effect for five years from when it becomes final (proposed 334(f)(2)).

Smaller changes

The proposal also includes some cleanup. The History lookback in section 335(d) would be corrected from three years to five. Posting rules for citations would be clarified in 332.4. Abatement certification under 340.4 would move to 10 working days instead of calendar days.

DIR estimates $0 in new compliance cost because the proposal adds no new safety requirements. That is accurate as far as it goes. What changes is how penalties are calculated, and for a multi-site employer with a gap in a shared program, that difference could be large.

How to comment

Written comments must be received by November 30, 2026. Email them to sb606rulemakingcomments@dir.ca.gov, or mail them to Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health, 1515 Clay Street, Ste. 1901, Oakland, CA 94612, ATTN: Egregious/Enterprise-Wide Citations Rulemaking, Lisa Wong, Staff Counsel. You can also comment at the public hearing on Thursday, December 3, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. It will be held at 1515 Clay Street, 13th Floor, Room 1304, Oakland, and by Zoom.

What to do now

None of this is final yet, but the proposal is specific enough to act on:

• Pull every written program, policy, or procedure used at more than one site and check it against the current standard.
• Look for anything that could look willful, like known hazards that were reported and left open, or prior citations where abatement was never fully closed out.
• Decide whether your organization wants to comment, and leave yourself enough time before November 30.

If you run more than one site, now is a good time to get a second set of eyes on your programs. Provisio EHS can review your multi-site written programs for gaps and help you draft comments to DIR. Call us at 385-316-2837 to set up a review.

This post summarizes a proposed rule and is not legal advice.

Sources

All retrieved Oct 20, 2026, about 7:50 AM MDT (America/Denver).

• DIR rulemaking page, Egregious and Enterprise-Wide Violations: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/doshreg/Egregious-and-Enterprise-Wide-Violations/
• DIR proposed regulations list (notice date Oct 16, 2026): https://www.dir.ca.gov/Rulemaking/DIRProposed.html
• Notice of Proposed Action: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/doshreg/Egregious-and-Enterprise-Wide-Violations/Notice-Proposed-Action.pdf
• Proposed regulation text: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/doshreg/Egregious-and-Enterprise-Wide-Violations/Proposed-Regulation.pdf
• Initial Statement of Reasons: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/doshreg/Egregious-and-Enterprise-Wide-Violations/ISOR.pdf