One of the most consequential new 2026 California employment laws is The Workplace Know Your Rights Act. The Know Your Rights Act amends the California Labor Code and is generally effective on February 1, 2026. It seeks to protect workers from federal harassment through the simple and benign mechanism of information sharing.
Truth be told, employers in California and elsewhere are in a tough spot. They must comply with immigration laws, but they also have legal obligations to their employees. Information sharing may be almost all they can do. For workers, though, information is important.
Knowledge is power.
Know Your Rights – immigration raids
Existing California law requires employers to inform employees about their rights under California labor laws, including, among other things, workers’ compensation and notice requirements related to inspections conducted by an immigration agency. The Workplace Know Your Rights Act expands those obligations.
It’s a proactive alert. It’s a proverbial plastic whistle.
The law requires employers to provide a stand-alone written notice to each current employee of their rights under the U.S. Constitution when interacting with law enforcement at the workplace. These rights do not depend on citizenship status.
The notice must specifically describe workers’ rights under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and rights under the Fifth Amendment to due process and against self-incrimination. The notice must be in the language the employer normally uses to communicate with the worker.
Employers must provide this written notice to each new employee upon hire and to provide the written notice annually to an employee’s authorized representative, if any. The Labor Commissioner has provided a template that employers can use.
The California Labor Commissioner must also post a video on its website on or before July 1 that advises employees of these rights. The video is to be developed with input from the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, the Public Employment Relations Board, and the Attorney General’s office. The video will be provided in Spanish and English.
By March 30, or at the time of hire, employers must give employees the opportunity to name an emergency contact to be notified if the worker is arrested or detained on their worksite.
Know Your Rights – collective bargaining and protection from unfair labor practices
The information provided to workers must also describe their rights to organize a union or engage in concerted activity in the workplace. It must also set forth all workers’ rights to protection from unfair labor practices, including discharge, threatening to discharge, demoting, suspending, or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against an employee for exercising or attempting to exercise their rights under the law.
Penalties
The Know Your Rights Law requires the California Labor Commissioner to enforce the law and also provides that an employer who violates the law may be subject to a penalty of up to $500 per employee for each violation, except that the penalty for a violation of the provisions relating to emergency contacts would be an amount up to $500 per employee for each day the violation occurs, up to a maximum of $10,000 per employee.
Where does this fit in the national context?
ICE raids are not just a California problem, but California appears to be alone in adopting a state law that requires employers to share this basic information about workers’ rights in the face of immigration raids. At least, so far.
READ MORE CALIFORNIA LABOR LAW LEGAL NEWS
Other states may follow, but in the meantime, every employer should know that they must respect these four basic rights:
- Employees do not have to answer questions about their immigration status, birthplace, or entry into the U.S., especially in public areas.
- Workers can ask for a lawyer before answering questions or consenting to searches.
- Employees are not required to show ID or consent to searches in private areas without a judicial warrant; and
- ICE needs a judicial warrant (signed by a judge, not just an ICE officer) to enter private areas or seize records.
Sharing this information with workers on a voluntary basis is not prohibited, even when it is not required by law. But why would employers hesitate?
This information is also available to the public from non-profit organizations, immigration attorneys and some businesses. Red Cards, also known as Tarjetas Rojas, are free of charge and may be ordered from https://www.ilrc.org/redcards.
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