As discussed here, effective January 1, 2026, SB 294 requires all California employers to provide an annual Workplace Know Your Rights Notice (“Notice”) to employees outlining workplace rights and procedures.
The Notice must be distributed to all employees by February 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, in a language employees understand. The content of the Notice covers seven key areas, including:
- Notification of I-9 inspections by immigration agencies
- Protection against unfair immigration-related practices
- Constitutional rights during law enforcement interactions
- Labor organizing rights
- Workers’ compensation information
- Updates on new laws affecting workplace rights
- A list of enforcement agencies
In accordance with SB 294, if an employee has asked an employer to notify a designated emergency contact, an employer must notify the designated contact if the employee is arrested or detained on the worksite or, when an employer has actual knowledge, if the employee is arrested or detained during work hours but not on the worksite. Therefore, starting January 1, 2026, an employer must notify an employee’s emergency contact in the event of an arrest or detention.
By March 30, 2026, an employer must provide employees with the opportunity to name emergency contacts and to indicate whether the emergency contact should be notified if the employee is arrested or detained.
As required by SB 294, the Labor Commissioner has released a Notice template that employers may use to comply with these new requirements. The 5-page notice currently is available in English and Spanish, and will be available in additional languages. The Labor Commissioner’s notice is a template, and it is not required that employers provide a verbatim copy of the template; they just must provide a notice that contains the required elements of SB 294. To that end, Western Growers’ SVP and General Counsel Jason Resnick, in collaboration with Rob Roy, President and General Counsel, Ventura County Agricultural Association, and Carmen Ponce, VP, General Counsel Labor, Tanimura & Antle, has developed a fully compliant one-page notice as an alternative to the state’s template. The document is available in English and Spanish.