Picture this. You arrive at work on a regular Tuesday morning, and law enforcement officers walk in asking to inspect employment records. Or your coworker is pulled aside and detained on the worksite. Their family has no idea where they are. The phone keeps ringing at home with no answer. In the past, California law did not require an employer to do anything about that situation. As of 2026, that has changed.
Senate Bill 294, signed by Governor Newsom on October 12, 2025 and known as the Workplace Know Your Rights Act, places new obligations on California employers. The law adds a brand-new chapter to the California Labor Code (Part 5.6, beginning with Section 1550) and gives every California worker two important things: an annual written notice of their core workplace rights, and the option to designate an emergency contact who must be notified if the worker is detained or arrested at work. Here is what the law actually says, in plain English.
What Is SB 294?
The Workplace Know Your Rights Act is California's attempt to make sure workers actually know what protections they have, especially in the context of immigration enforcement, on-the-job injuries, and union activity. Until SB 294, much of this information was scattered across different posters, websites, and handbooks, and many workers had no clear way to learn about it. The new law puts the information in a single annual notice that every employer must send to every employee.
Two parts of the law are most important to understand. The first is the annual notice itself, which begins February 1, 2026. The second is the emergency contact requirement, which had a deadline of March 30, 2026 for existing employees. Both requirements are now in effect, and employers who have not complied are exposed to penalties.
The Annual Written Notice
By February 1, 2026, and every year afterward, every California employer must give each current employee a stand-alone written notice that explains specific worker rights. New hires must receive the same notice when they start. The notice must also be sent to any authorized representative, such as a union representative, that the employee has designated.
The notice must cover the following topics:
- Workers' compensation benefits. Including disability pay, medical care for work-related injuries, and contact information for the California Division of Workers' Compensation.
- Immigration enforcement at the worksite. The notice must explain the right to be notified when an immigration enforcement agency inspects Form I-9 or other employment records, the protection against unfair immigration-related practices, and constitutional rights when interacting with law enforcement at the workplace.
- The right to organize. Including the right to form, join, or assist a union and to engage in protected concerted activity.
The Labor Commissioner was required to publish a model notice on its website by January 1, 2026, and to update it every year. Employers can use that model directly, or they can prepare their own notice as long as it covers the same content. The notice must be delivered through the same method the employer normally uses for workplace communications, such as email, text message, or hand delivery, and the worker must reasonably be able to receive it within one business day. If the model notice is available in a language the employee understands, the employer should generally provide it in that language.
The Emergency Contact Designation
This is the part of the law that has gotten the most attention, and for good reason. Many California workers, including U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and people with various forms of work authorization, can be picked up at work for any number of reasons. Without a contact in place, families can spend hours or days trying to figure out what happened.
SB 294 fixed that gap. The law required employers to give every existing employee the chance to designate an emergency contact on or before March 30, 2026, and to do the same at the time of hire for any new employee starting after that date. The contact does not have to be a relative. It can be anyone the employee chooses, including a friend, partner, or attorney.
If an employee is arrested or detained, the rules work like this:
- If the arrest or detention happens on the worksite, the employer must notify the designated emergency contact.
- If it happens during work hours or while the employee is performing job duties but not on the worksite, the employer must notify the contact only if the employer has actual knowledge of the arrest or detention.
- If the employee never designated a contact, there is no notification requirement, but the employer still had to offer the option.
The notification has to happen as soon as practicable. The employer cannot delay the notice to retaliate against the worker or to make life harder for the family.
Anti-Retaliation Protections
SB 294 builds in strong protections for workers who exercise their rights under the new law. An employer cannot discharge, threaten to discharge, demote, suspend, or in any other way discriminate or retaliate against an employee for naming an emergency contact, for asking questions about the annual notice, or for otherwise asserting their rights under the Act.
This is consistent with California's broader pattern of protecting workers from retaliation. If you exercise a right under the Labor Code, your employer generally cannot punish you for it. If you experience retaliation after asserting your rights under SB 294, you may have a separate retaliation claim under existing California law.
Penalties for Non-Compliance
The law gives the California Labor Commissioner and public prosecutors authority to investigate violations and bring enforcement actions. The penalties are structured this way:
- Up to $500 per employee per violation for failing to provide the annual notice or for other general violations of the Act.
- Up to $500 per employee per day for violations involving the emergency contact requirement, with a maximum of $10,000 per employee. So if an employer fails to offer the emergency contact option for 20 days, the potential penalty for each affected worker can add up quickly.
For an employer with even a modest workforce, a systemic failure can become a six-figure or seven-figure exposure. That is a strong incentive to get compliance right.
What This Means for Employees
If you work in California, here are some practical steps:
- Look for the annual notice. If you have not received a stand-alone Workplace Know Your Rights notice from your employer, ask for one. Employers were supposed to send the first one by February 1, 2026.
- Designate an emergency contact in writing. If your employer offered you the option, take it. Choose someone who can act on your behalf if you are detained. Keep a copy of what you submitted.
- Read the notice carefully. The notice should explain your rights around immigration inspections, workers' compensation, and union activity. Knowing those rights ahead of time is much more useful than trying to research them in a moment of crisis.
- Document any retaliation. If you experience adverse treatment after asking about the notice or designating a contact, write down the details, dates, and witnesses.
- Know that the notice is not the same as legal advice. A general rights notice helps you understand the landscape. A real situation, like an actual immigration inspection or arrest, may require quick advice from a licensed California attorney.
What This Means for Employers
If you run a California business and you have not yet implemented SB 294 compliance, this is a high-priority item. Practical steps:
- Use the Labor Commissioner's model notice as a starting point. It is published on the Department of Industrial Relations website and updated annually.
- Build the annual notice into your existing communications cycle. Many employers are sending it in January or early February each year, alongside other annual notices.
- Create or update an emergency contact form. Make sure you offered it to every existing employee and that you offer it to every new hire as part of onboarding. Document that the offer was made, even if the employee chose not to designate anyone.
- Train supervisors and HR. If immigration enforcement officers, local police, or other agencies arrive at the worksite, your front-line managers need to know what to do, including how to invoke the emergency contact protocol.
- Avoid retaliation. Treat employees who use these protections exactly the same as those who do not. Retaliation claims can be more expensive than the underlying compliance failure.
How This Fits Into California's Bigger Picture
SB 294 sits alongside a broader set of 2026 California employment laws that strengthen worker protections, including AB 692 on stay-or-pay contracts, the new 2026 minimum wage rules, and the other new laws taking effect this year. The general theme is more transparency, more notice, and more practical tools for workers to understand and act on their rights.
For employers, the message is consistent: California's compliance bar keeps rising, and the cost of getting it wrong continues to grow. For workers, the practical takeaway is that you have more rights than many people realize, and the new annual notice is designed to make that easier to see.
How Wiser Workplace Can Help
Disagreements about notices, emergency contact procedures, and related retaliation concerns can be tense. They often involve a worker who feels their rights were ignored and an employer who feels blindsided by a fast-moving compliance environment. These are exactly the kinds of disputes that can often be resolved earlier, faster, and at lower cost through a structured conversation rather than litigation.
Wiser Workplace gives California employees and employers a confidential channel to raise workplace concerns and explore resolution before things escalate. If you have a workplace concern related to SB 294 or any other California employment issue, you can join the launch waitlist and see what options are available.