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EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
STATE OF CALIFORNIA

EXECUTIVE ORDER N-51-20

WHEREAS on March 4, 2020, I proclaimed a State of Emergency to exist in
California as a result of the threat of COVID-19; and

WHEREAS on March 19, 2020, I issued Exec utive Order N-33-20, directing all
residents statewide to obey all state public health directives, including the State
Public Health Officer's order to all individuals living in the state to stay home or at
their other place of residence, except as otherwise specified, including as
needed to maintain continuity of operations of critical infrastructure sectors
during the COVID-19 response; and

WHEREAS hard-working Californians who help grow and harvest the food
in California's farms and fields, work in our food facilities, and deliver food from
our food facilities are among the essential critical infrastructure workers serving
on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic; and

WHEREAS the food supply sector and the reliability of our food supply are
fundamental to the health of all Californians and are only possible during the
COVID-19 pandemic because workers in this sector - farm workers, grocery
workers, and food delivery workers, among others - continue to work in difficult
situations; and

WHEREAS workers who are sick are more likely to go to work if they do not
have paid leave, thereby increasing health and safety risks for their fellow
workers and other members of the public with whom they, or the products of
their work, come into contact; and

WHEREAS providing paid sick leave related to COVID-19 to food sector
workers will reduce the spread of COVID-19 and otherwise mitigate the effects
of COVID-19 among these workers, thereby promoting public health and safety;
and

WHEREAS effective April 1, 2020, the federal Families First Coronavirus
Response Act ("FFCRA") requires employers of fewer than 500 employees to
provide emergency paid sick leave benefits to employees who may not be
able to work because of COVID-19; and

WHEREAS notwithstanding the FFCRA, many food sector workers continue
to lack access to paid sick leave; and

WHEREAS expanding the handwashing requirements under California's
Retail Food Code to instruct food facilities to permit their workers to wash their
hands on a regular and as-needed basis serves to mitigate and prevent the
spread of COVID-19.