Update Applicable to:
All employers and businesses with on-premises alcoholic beverage servers in the state of California.

What happened?
On October 15, 2017, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1221 (AB 1221), also known as the “Responsible Beverage Service Training Act,” into law, which will require will require on-premises alcoholic beverage servers and their managers to undergo training. This law was originally set to be effective last year but was extended given the pandemic. 

What are the details?|
Effective July 1, 2022, all on-premises alcoholic beverage servers and their managers must take Responsible Beverage Training (“RBS Training”).  This Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC)-approved training must be completed by August 31, 2022, or within 60 days of hire thereafter.

The regulations define an alcohol server as anyone who does any of the following:

1. Checks customer identification for purposes of alcoholic beverage service or entry to an ABC on-premises licensed establishment;
2. Takes customer alcoholic beverage orders;
3. Pours alcoholic beverages for customers; or
4. Delivers alcoholic beverages to customers.

An alcohol manager is anyone who trains, directly hires, or oversees alcohol servers at an ABC licensed premises, or who trains alcohol servers on how to perform the service of alcohol for consumption for an ABC on-premises licensee. It does not include an employee or contractor of another separate ABC licensee who is training alcohol servers for marketing or distribution purposes. 

For more information, please see the links below:

What do employers need to do?
Employers should review the links provided above and have their employees and managers complete the required training before the deadline of August 31, 2022.

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