Laws and regulations · Policy and compliance
California SB 553 violent incident log: what Labor Code 6401.9 requires
| Jurisdiction | California |
|---|---|
| Citation | Labor Code section 6401.9 (SB 553, 2023) |
| Status | Section 6401.9 is published as current law on the California Legislative Information site. |
| Official text | https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB§ionNum=6401.9 |
California Labor Code section 6401.9, added by SB 553, requires an employer to keep a violent incident log. The employer shall record information in the log for every workplace violence incident (California Legislative Information). Each entry is built from the employees involved, witness statements, and investigation findings, names the person who completed it, and is kept for a minimum of five years.
Who it covers
The section sits in the Labor Code’s workplace safety provisions, so it is written for California employers as a class, not for retail alone. A store, a distribution center, and a corporate office in California all fall under the same log duty. This page covers the log only. Section 6401.9 contains more than the log, and those other parts belong in a read of the full statute or a conversation with counsel, not in a summary built from the log provisions.
What it requires
The log provisions come down to the following.
- A record for every incident. The employer shall record information in a violent incident log for every workplace violence incident (California Legislative Information). The trigger is the incident, not an injury, a police call, or a claim.
- Sourced entries. Each entry shall be based on information solicited from the employees who experienced the workplace violence, on witness statements, and on investigation findings (California Legislative Information). An entry written from memory by a manager who was not there does not meet that standard.
- A named completer. The log must include information about the person completing the log, including their name, job title, and the date completed (California Legislative Information).
- Retention. Violent incident logs shall be maintained for a minimum of five years (California Legislative Information).
| Requirement | Who | When |
|---|---|---|
| Record the incident in the violent incident log | Store manager or designated loss prevention lead | After every workplace violence incident |
| Solicit accounts from the employees who experienced it, take witness statements, add investigation findings | The person completing the entry | Before the entry is closed |
| Enter the completer’s name, job title, and date completed | The person completing the entry | On every entry |
| Keep the log | The employer | A minimum of five years |
What it does not require of an associate
Nothing in the log provisions asks a floor associate to stop, detain, follow, or confront anyone. The duty to record sits with the employer. The associate’s part is to get to a safe place, report what happened to a manager the same shift, and give an accurate account when asked. That account is the raw material for the entry. A store that trains associates to observe and report, and never to chase, produces better log entries than a store that trains them to intervene, because the person who stepped back can describe what they saw. The reporting habit is the same habit taught in de-escalation training for retail associates.
What a store should do this week
- Name the person who completes the log and a backup, with job titles written down.
- Put a blank log template where the closing manager can reach it, on paper or in the incident system.
- Write a short definition of a workplace violence incident for the store and post it in the office, so managers do not skip verbal threats.
- Add “get a witness statement” to the manager’s incident checklist.
- Set the retention rule in the incident system to a minimum of five years and confirm nobody can purge earlier.
- Tell associates in the next huddle that every incident, including threats, gets reported and recorded.
How the log fits the rest of the program
The log is a record, not a policy. It works when the store already has a written line on what associates do when a customer turns aggressive, which is the subject of the customer aggression policy for retail associates. Once entries accumulate, the log also becomes data: which register, which hour, which door. A manager who reads it quarterly will see patterns a single incident hides. For the broader picture on threats to store staff, see the workplace violence topic hub.