California May Enact Captive Audience Bill in the Workplace

The California governor has not yet signed, but is expected to sign, a measure passed by the California legislature, which is designed to avoid workers being discriminated against or indoctrinated.

It’s called the Employer Intimidation Act, and if passed it could provide not only protections for workers—but a private right of action, allowing workers to be compensated if their employers violate the law.

What the Law Prohibits

The law, if passed, would prevent employers from discussing political, or religious matters, during mandatory employee meetings. Notably, that includes a prohibition on discussing union matters or union organizing—meaning that employers could not use mandatory meetings to discourage unions or unionization or to say negative things about unions.

The prohibition is on any meeting that is made mandatory by employers. Mandatory meetings are those where the meeting is during normal working hours or whenever employees are paid for the time spent at the meeting. It includes any meeting where there would be punishment of any kind for not attending the meeting.

Employers would also not even be allowed to threaten employees with any kind of punishment or discipline if the employee didn’t attend a mandatory meeting where religion, politics, or union matters were being discussed.

Should the employer have a meeting where these topics are discussed, and should that meeting be mandatory, the employer must not only excuse the employee, but pay the employee even though he or she opted not to attend the meeting.

Exemptions to the Law

The law wouldn’t apply to bona fide religious organizations, like religious schools, or any hours that are exempt from federal civil rights law. The law also still requires employees to attend, and allows employers to provide, any training that relates to harassment or discrimination or to safety practices in the workplace.

Penalties and Punishment

Employers who break the law could face steep penalties. The state could penalize the business $500 per employee, per violation. But private employees could sue as well and the law specifically says that employees could get punitive damages as well.

Legal Challenges

If and when signed by the Governor, the law will be certain to face legal challenges.

Employers will argue that the law violates their first amendment rights, particularly when it comes to their opinions on unions. However, the law doesn’t restrict an employer’s right to comment on any given topic—it just prevents employers from discussing these topics in captive, required meetings.

Other States

So-called captive audience laws aren’t unique to California. Many other states have passed them and it is estimated that about 22 million employees have been protected by these kinds of laws nationwide. This is in response to the laws of most states, where at-will employment does allow employers leeway to fire employees for almost any reason.

Contact the San Jose employment lawyers at the Costanzo Law Firm today if you have been discriminated against at work or retaliated against.

Sources:

natlawreview.com/article/california-legislature-sends-governor-bill-prohibiting-employer-captive-audience

epi.org/blog/will-illinois-be-next-to-tackle-the-problem-of-captive-audience-meetings-rights-and-freedoms-of-22-7-million-workers-now-protected-in-seven-states/