Starting Jan. 1, a willful safety violation in California that seriously injures a worker can be charged as a crime. Until now, Labor Code Section 6425 reached only violations that caused a death or permanent or prolonged impairment. Assembly Bill 2321 also changes how Cal/OSHA cases reach prosecutors, and for contractors that may be the bigger shift.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill, by Assemblymember Liz Ortega of San Leandro, on Sept. 30, and it was chaptered the same day as Chapter 936 of the 2026 statutes. Occupational Health & Safety walked through the provisions Oct. 13, a day after Safety+Health covered the referral changes.
What AB 2321 changes in Cal/OSHA criminal liability
The expanded offense carries the penalties already in Section 6425(a). That’s up to a year in county jail and a $100,000 fine, or 16 months, two years or three years in state prison and up to $250,000. Corporations and LLCs face fines up to $1.5 million.
There’s a new misdemeanor as well. Willfully resisting or interfering with a Cal/OSHA inspection or investigation, or willfully violating a related court order, can bring up to six months in county jail and a $5,000 fine. Employers can still ask for a warrant. They just can’t obstruct.
How Cal/OSHA referrals to prosecutors will work
The Bureau of Investigations, Cal/OSHA’s criminal unit, must now investigate any accident involving serious injury, illness or exposure where the division issues a willful citation. It has to write procedures for choosing which cases to investigate and refer, and document why it declines one. Results go to the prosecutor unless the bureau finds the evidence legally insufficient.
The notice chain gets shorter. Fire and police agencies that respond to a covered workplace accident must notify both Cal/OSHA and the county district attorney right away. Cal/OSHA has to notify prosecutors immediately after a death, after serious injury or exposure involving five or more workers, or when its own staff request prosecution. It must also build a routine or automated feed of serious-incident reports to the bureau.
The push came from the referral record. Employment law firm Fisher Phillips, citing an Assembly floor analysis, says the bureau referred 1.7% of cases in its jurisdiction for prosecution between 2019 and 2022, when it was badly understaffed. The firm expects the interference misdemeanor to draw a Fourth Amendment challenge.
What California contractors should change before Jan. 1
Jobsites are where fire and police show up after a serious injury, so construction will feel the notification rules early. One bad day on a California project can now run on three tracks at once: the ordinary inspection and citation, a bureau criminal inquiry and a local prosecution.
Fisher Phillips recommends an incident response plan that names who gets called, how inspectors are handled and how documents, video and equipment are preserved, with counsel involved early. The trigger is a willful finding, and federal willful calls in construction usually follow a known hazard left in place, as in a recent HDD fatality case and the Monroe, N.Y., excavation citations.
AB 2321 doesn’t add a single safety standard. What it changes is the cost of a willful citation, and the district attorney now hears about the incident in the first hour instead of after the inspection closes.