SB 553 compliance checklist: the 7 records every California employer needs

Why "compliance" means records

Labor Code §6401.9 doesn't just tell California employers to have a workplace violence prevention program — it tells them to document it, in specific ways, on a recurring schedule. In an inspection or after an incident, the questions are concrete: Show me the plan for this site. Show me who was trained, and when. Show me the log. Show me the hazard inspection and what you fixed. If the paper trail doesn't exist, the program doesn't exist as far as enforcement is concerned.

Here is the full set, in the order an inspector typically asks for them. (Not sure the law applies to you? Start with Does SB 553 apply to my business?)

The seven records

1. The written workplace violence prevention plan (WVPP)

The anchor document. It must be written, site-specific, and in effect at all times, either standalone or as a section of your IIPP. At minimum it names the people responsible for implementation and contains your procedures for employee involvement, accepting and investigating reports of violence (without retaliation), communicating with employees, responding to emergencies, training, identifying and correcting hazards, post-incident response, and annual review. A generic template with the blanks left in is the single most common failure: the plan has to reflect this worksite — its layout, hours, cash handling, and the hazards you actually assessed.

2. Training records

Training happens when the plan is first established, annually after that, and again when a new hazard is identified or the plan changes. For each session, keep: a summary of the training material, the names and qualifications of who delivered it, and the names and job titles of who attended, with dates. Minimum retention is one year — though keeping them longer costs nothing and shows the annual cadence.

3. The violent incident log

Every workplace violence incident — including threats, and regardless of whether anyone was hurt — goes into a log with required fields: date, time, location, the violence type (Type 1–4), a detailed description, circumstances, consequences, and who completed the entry, with no personal identifying information. Keep it five years. The fields are specific enough that we wrote a separate field-by-field guide.

4. Hazard identification and evaluation records

The plan must include procedures to identify workplace violence hazards — when the plan is established, periodically after that, when a new hazard becomes known, and after any incident. Each inspection needs a record: when it happened, who did it, what was evaluated, what was found. Retention: five years.

5. Hazard correction records

Finding a hazard creates the obligation to fix it in a timely way — and to document the fix. Broken lighting in the parking lot, a missing panic procedure, a lone-worker closing shift: the record shows what was corrected, how, and when. Retention: five years. Inspectors read items 4 and 5 together; an inspection that found problems with no correction record behind it is worse than no inspection at all.

6. Incident investigation records

After an incident, the plan requires a post-incident response and investigation — separate from the log entry. Document what happened, who was involved in responding, what you concluded, and what changed as a result. Retention: five years.

7. Annual plan review documentation

The plan must be reviewed for effectiveness at least annually, plus whenever a deficiency becomes apparent or after an incident. Keep evidence the review happened: the date, who participated (the statute requires active employee involvement), what was evaluated, and any revisions made. This is the record that proves the program is alive rather than a binder from 2024.

Retention and access, in one table

Two deadlines to internalize: 15 calendar days for employee record requests, and five years of retention for everything incident- and hazard-related. Calendar days — weekends count.

A 10-minute self-audit

Run down this list for each worksite. Anything you can't put your hands on in five minutes is a gap:

• The current written plan for this specific site — with the responsible person's actual name and title in it.
• A training record from the last 12 months for every current employee, including hires made mid-year.
• The violent incident log — even if it's empty, it should exist and staff should know how incidents get into it.
• The most recent hazard inspection, dated within the review cycle your plan promises.
• A correction record for every hazard that inspection found.
• An investigation record for any incident in the log.
• Documentation of the last annual review, with employee involvement noted.

If the gaps are mostly "we did it but never wrote it down," you're closer than you think — the fix is process, not heroics. If the gaps are "we haven't done it," see what's at stake and start with the plan.

Frequently asked questions