The SB 553 Violent Incident Log: What You Have to Record
Most California employers we talk to understand that SB 553 requires a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan.
Most California employers we talk to understand that SB 553 requires a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan. The piece they often miss is the violent incident log. It is a separate document, with its own required fields, its own retention rule, and its own access right that runs to your employees and their representatives.
If a Cal/OSHA inspector arrives, the log is one of the first things they ask for. If you cannot produce it, or if the entries are missing required fields, that is a citation, even when nothing else in your program is broken.
For a complete overview of the law and how the program fits together, see our California Workplace Violence Prevention Plan guide. This piece goes deeper on the log itself.
Why the Log Is a Separate Document
The violent incident log is not the Cal/OSHA Form 300, and it is not a copy of an OSHA injury report. SB 553 (Labor Code §6401.9) requires its own record, with its own rules.
The point of the log is to make patterns visible. One verbal threat in a parking lot is an incident. Three of them in six months at the same loading dock is a hazard pattern that should be triggering hazard correction and a plan review. The log is what lets you, your employees, and Cal/OSHA see that pattern.
Two things make the log different from a typical safety record:
It must capture incidents even when nobody was injured.
A threat, an act of aggression, or a near miss is logged when it meets the statutory definition of workplace violence.
It must protect the identity of people involved.
Personally identifying information is omitted. We will get to that below.
What the Log Must Include
The violent incident log must capture the following fields for each entry. This list comes straight from the Cal/OSHA WVPP requirements under Title 8 and the SB 553 statute, and it matches the log template Cal/OSHA points employers to.
- Date of incident
- Time of incident
- Location where the incident occurred, and how that location is classified (for example, inside the workplace, in an adjacent parking lot or exterior area, or off site)
- Workplace violence type (Type 1, 2, 3, or 4 under the SB 553 categories)
- Detailed description of the incident
- Type of incident. Whether it involved a physical attack without a weapon, an attack with a weapon or object, a threat of physical force or threat to use a weapon or object, or a sexual assault or threat
- Classification of the person who committed the violence (stranger, customer/client/visitor, coworker, person with a personal relationship to an employee, etc.)
- Circumstances at the time of the incident (what the employee was doing, what was happening at the location, security measures in place)
- Consequences of the incident (injuries, law enforcement involved, security response, actions taken)
- Information about the person completing the log: name, job title, and date of entry
The four workplace violence types referenced in field 4 come straight from SB 553. For a breakdown of what each type covers and how it shows up in different facility settings, see our guide to the four types of workplace violence under SB 553.
What You Have to Leave Out
The log is a hazard record, not an investigation file. SB 553 is explicit about what does not go in it:
- No personally identifying information about the people involved. Names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, Social Security numbers, and anything that would identify the individuals are omitted from the log itself.
- No medical information. You cannot ask for, attach, or reference medical records or treatment details in the log.
This is one of the most common mistakes we see when we review a client’s existing log. Someone has written a thorough narrative entry that names the employee who was threatened, the customer who did the threatening, and the urgent care clinic the employee went to. That entry is not compliant. The detail belongs in your investigation file, which is a separate record. The log gets a sanitized version.
How the Reporting Form Feeds the Log
The violent incident log is a back-end record. The front-end record is the violent incident reporting form, the document an employee or supervisor fills out when something happens.
The reporting form can capture the full story, including names and specifics, because it lives in your internal incident file. From that form, a designated person on your team writes the log entry, strips the identifying information, and files it.
When we set this up for a client, we put the reporting form somewhere employees can find it without asking permission, train supervisors on what triggers a report, and assign one person, by name or job title, to write the log entry within a defined window. Without that ownership step, reports get filled out and then sit in a manager’s inbox until the next inspection. We see this every time we audit an existing program.
How Long You Keep the Log, and Who Can See It
SB 553 sets clear retention and access rules.
| Record | Minimum retention | Who can request it |
|---|---|---|
| Violent incident log | 5 years | Employees, their representatives, Cal/OSHA |
| Records of workplace violence hazards identified, evaluated, and corrected | 5 years | Employees, their representatives, Cal/OSHA |
| Training records | 1 year | Employees, their representatives, Cal/OSHA |
| Workplace violence incident investigation records | 5 years | Cal/OSHA (the statute does not give employees the same access right to investigation records as it does to the log) |
When an employee or a representative requests the log, you have 15 calendar days to provide a copy, at no cost. That deadline is fixed in the regulation. It is not a Cal/OSHA-only right. An employee can ask, and the clock starts when they do.
Where the Log Fits in the Annual Review
The plan is not a one-time document, and neither is the log. SB 553 requires the WVPP to be reviewed at least annually, after any incident, and any time a deficiency is identified. The log is what feeds that review. You read what happened over the year, you look for patterns, and you update the plan and training accordingly.
For how the annual review process works and what gets updated each year, see Annual WVPP review and refresher training. For the complete list of plan elements the law requires, see our California WVPP requirements checklist.
How CDMS Handles the Log
When CDMS develops a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, the violent incident log and the reporting form are delivered as part of the plan package. We tailor both to your facility, walk your team through how entries get written, and integrate the log into the annual review so it does not get left out year over year.
Trusted throughout California
BSY started working with CDMS last year after our in-house EHS person departed the company. CDMS reviewed our existing operational permits as well as any additional Federal, State and Local regulations that could apply and helped us to create a comprehensive compliance calendar to track regulatory deadlines and submittal due dates. The CDMS team does an excellent job of tracking everything and can be relied upon to complete the forms accurately and assist with submittals, allowing me to focus on our business.
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