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The Bottom Line
- By February 1, 2026, California employers must distribute a notice under the Workplace Know Your Rights Act to all current California employees. This notice should also be distributed to employees upon hire and annually.
- By March 30, 2026, employers must provide employees, and new hires thereafter, the opportunity to designate an emergency contact that the employer is authorized to contact in the event the employee is arrested or detained at the worksite or in the performance of job duties away from the worksite.
The newly enacted Workplace Know Your Rights Act requires California employers to provide employees annually and at the time of hire with a stand-alone written notice of key workplace rights. Employers must complete the initial distribution of this notice to all California employees by February 1, 2026.
What's Included in the Required Notice
The notice includes information about employee workplace protections related to:
- Immigration status
- Labor organizing rights
- Protections when interacting with law enforcement in the workplace
- Workers' compensation benefits
- A list of agencies that enforce the underlying rights in the notice and can provide worker assistance
How to Distribute the Notice to Employees
An employer can distribute the notice through their normal communication channels. The notice must be provided in a language the employer normally uses with the employees when discussing employment-related information, which should be a language employees understand.
The Labor Commissioner has developed a template notice that complies with the law for employer use. The notice is currently available in English and Spanish and will soon be available in additional languages.
To ensure compliance, we recommend that California employers distribute the template notice to employees as a stand-alone document by February 1, 2026. Employers should also implement a process for distributing the notice, which will be updated annually by the Labor Commissioner, to employees each year.
Emergency Contact Requirements: March 30, 2026 Deadline
By March 30, 2026, employers must provide employees the opportunity to name an emergency contact and to indicate whether the emergency contact should be notified if the employee is arrested or detained at the worksite, or during work hours or the performance of the employee's job duties away from the worksite, if the employer has actual knowledge of the arrest or detention of the employee. Employers must also provide this opportunity to new hires.
Penalties for Non-Compliance
The Act authorizes the Labor Commissioner to impose penalties for non-compliance. Employers violating the Act may be subject to penalties of up to $500 per employee for violations of the annual notice requirement. For violations related to the emergency contact notification requirements, employers may be subject to a penalty of $500 per employee for each day a violation occurs, up to a maximum of $10,000 per employee.
The Act also prohibits retaliation against an employee who seeks enforcement of the employer's obligations under the Act.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
