Governor Newsom signed the California Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act, which prohibits employers from taking adverse employment action against employees that choose not to attend employer sponsored meetings on specified topics. The law focuses on so-called “Captive Audience Meetings.” A Captive Audience Meeting is defined as “Employer sponsored meetings that discuss religious or political matters, including union-representation discussions.”
Employers are prohibited from engaging in or threatening to discharge, discriminate, retaliate against, or take “any other adverse action” against any employee who declines to attend an “employer sponsored meeting” or declines to “participate in, receive, or listen” to any employer communications regarding “religious or political matters.” “Political matters” are broadly defined to include anything regarding “elections for political office, political parties, legislation, regulation, and the decision to join or support any political party or political or labor organization.”
Employees have a new private right of action against their employer for violations of the law.
California joins eight other states (Oregon, Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, New York, Washington, Illinois and Vermont) to ban these captive audience meetings.
The law is, unfortunately, vague regarding what constitutes an “employer-sponsored” meeting and legal challenges are expected to the law. However, employers should carefully require attendance at meetings that may involve any religious or political matters, communicate the purpose of any such meetings and emphasize attendance is voluntary, and train your supervisors to understand the parameters of the law (vague as they may be).