Workers' comp for restaurant groups and franchisees.

Cal/OSHA's indoor heat rule on the cook line

Title 8 section 3396, Cal/OSHA's indoor heat illness standard, has applied since July 23, 2024. It reaches indoor work areas that hit 82°F while employees are there, and DIR lists restaurants among the workplaces it covers. "Indoor" means a space under a ceiling or overhead cover that restricts airflow and is enclosed all the way around by walls, doors, windows or other barriers, open or closed, so a typical kitchen counts. Brief exposure is excluded: less than 15 minutes in any 60-minute period at 82°F or more but under 95°F. A cook on the line all shift won't fit it.

At 82°F the basics apply:

• Free, fresh drinking water close to where people work.
• At least one cool-down area, kept below 82°F unless you can show that's infeasible, and staff may take a preventive cool-down rest whenever they feel the need.
• Emergency response procedures, and training before anyone starts work in the heat.
• A written plan in English and in the language most of your employees understand. It can sit inside your Injury and Illness Prevention Program.

Measurement and control duties start when the temperature or heat index reaches 87°F with employees present, or at 82°F where staff wear clothing that restricts heat removal or work in a high radiant heat area. You measure, record the higher reading with the date, time and location, and keep those records 12 months or until the next measurement, whichever is later; the rule also lets you assume those conditions exist and go straight to controls. Controls come in order: engineering (air conditioning, cooling fans, shielding hot equipment), then administrative (rotation, scheduling), then personal heat-protective equipment. Employees newly assigned to those conditions are closely observed for their first 14 days.

Keep the plan, the measurement log and the training records in one folder per kitchen. Outside California, indoor heat rules vary by state.

Drivers, catering and the audit: what to read for

On a restaurant group audit, here is what the WCIRB plan says to read for:

• Your own delivery drivers. Drivers and their helpers are a general inclusion, so their payroll goes in the restaurant's classification rather than a separate driving code, unless delivery is run as a separate and distinct business unrelated to the restaurant. The auto side is a separate question: hired and non-owned auto.
• App delivery companies. App-based, on-demand delivery companies that bring restaurant meals to customers for a fee are classified 7198(1), Parcel Delivery and Messenger Service Companies. That code describes the app company's operation, not yours.
• Catering. Code 9082, Caterers, is only for employers that do nothing but catering and keep no location for dine-in or for individually ordered meals to go. Off-site catering done by a restaurant goes in whichever Food and Beverage Service classification fits the restaurant.
• Entertainment and brewing. Code 9080 includes musicians and entertainers the restaurant employs. Under 9080 and 9083, on-site brewing stays in the restaurant code when more than half of the beer's gross receipts come from on-site drinking at your own restaurants; if half or more is sold to be drunk elsewhere, brewing is classified separately as 2121, Breweries.

When the audit worksheet arrives, check it against your records: tips left out, meals handled under the meal rule, overtime premium excluded where your records split it, and each restaurant in its own code. Send me the worksheet before you respond to the auditor.