By Jeanne Kuang | CalMatters
Starting Jan. 1, California employers won’t be able to require workers to attend any meetings related to their political or religious views — or how their bosses feel about unions.
That’s according to a new law, Senate Bill 399, that is one of the most prominent of the usual wave of new workplace laws businesses are expected to follow each year.
The legislation came as the Legislature’s Democratic supermajority sought to support a rising wave of unionization across California and the nation.
The law bans mandatory workplace meetings in which the employer discusses their “opinion about religious or political matters,” the latter of which is defined to include the decision on whether to join a union. Workers cannot be disciplined for refusing to attend such a meeting under SB 399.
The new law’s proponents, including the California Labor Federation, say such meetings can intimidate workers out of exercising their right to unionize, though retaliation from employers is already illegal.
Business groups such as the California Chamber of Commerce opposed the new law, arguing it would infringe on employers’ right to free speech and ability to discuss the effects of laws or regulation on their industries. The law includes exceptions for employees, such as those working for political parties, whose job includes talking about politics.
California is joining nine other mostly Democratic states that have recently banned these so-called captive audience meetings. The law’s passage was a victory for the labor movement as it braces for the Trump administration next month.
Under President Joe Biden, the National Labor Relations Board has also sought to curb the meetings, which for decades prior boards have generally allowed as long as employers aren’t threatening workers or withholding benefits from those who support a union.
In November, the board ruled in a case involving Amazon that captive-audience meetings violate the federal law guaranteeing workers the right to unionize, but many labor experts expect the decision to be overturned once President-elect Donald Trump takes office. In that case, California’s ban on the meetings would still apply, though employers have been challenging other states’ captive audience laws in court.
Other new employment laws that go into effect Jan. 1 include:
—An increase to the minimum wage, from $16 an hour to $16.50. Voters in November defeated an effort to further increase the wage to $18, but current law automatically adjusts the minimum wage during inflationary periods.
—Employers will also be required to allow workers to use their time off more flexibly. Under AB 2123, they can no longer force employees to use as much as two weeks of vacation time before taking paid family leave, the state program that gives workers some benefits for taking time off to care for a newborn child or sick family member.
—And under AB 2499 workers can use sick time to perform jury duty. That new law also expands the reasons workers can take unpaid, protected leave when they are victims of crime.
Some changes will apply to specific industries. Farmworkers will be allowed to use paid sick days to avoid working outside during periods of wildfire smoke, extreme heat or flooding.
Performers and entertainers will have the right to refuse studios and production companies using AI-generated “digital replicas” of their images or voices to reproduce or replace their work. In July 2025, domestic workers who are employed by house-cleaner or nanny agencies to work in clients’ private homes will be subject for the first time to workplace safety laws.