Highlights
Impacted employers:All employers with employees in California
Effective date:Feb. 1, 2026
Summary:California has published a template to help employers address a requirement to provide a notice annually to each current employee and to each new employee at the time of hire, informing them of certain rights under state and federal law. The template notice is currently available in English and Spanish and will eventually be available in additional languages.
Next steps:Employers should provide the required notice to current employees and new hires.
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The details
Background
Under a law enacted last year, on or before Feb. 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, an employer must provide a new stand-alone written notice to each current employee in a manner the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information. This may include, but is not limited to, personal service, email, or text message, if it can reasonably be anticipated to be received by the employee within one business day of sending.
Employers must also provide the notice to each new employee upon hire.
Written notice must also be provided annually to the employee’s authorized representative, if any, by either electronic or regular mail.
The written notice must be provided to an employee in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to the employee and which the employee understands if the template notice is available in that language on the Labor Commissioner’s website.
If the template notice isn’t available in that language, the written notice may be provided in English.
Template Notice Published
The California Labor Commissioner’s office has posted on its website a template notice. The template notice is currently available in English and Spanish and will be available in additional languages later. The template will be updated annually.
Notice Contents
The notice must contain a description of workers’ rights in the following areas:
- The right to workers’ compensation benefits, including disability pay and medical care for work-related injuries or illness, as well as the contact information for the California Division of Workers’ Compensation.
- The right to notice of inspection by immigration agencies under state law.
- Protection against unfair immigration-related practices against a person exercising their rights.
- The right to organize a union or engage in concerted activity in the workplace.
- Constitutional rights when interacting with law enforcement at the workplace, including an employee’s right under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and rights under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to due process and against self-incrimination.
The notice must also contain both of the following:
- A description of new legal developments pertaining to laws enforced by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency that the Labor Commissioner deems material and necessary. The Labor Commissioner must include a list of those developments, if any, in the template notice.
- A list, developed by the Labor Commissioner, of the enforcement agencies that may enforce the underlying rights in the notice. The Labor Commissioner must also include this list in the template notice.
Next Steps
Employers should provide compliant notices to existing employees and new hires. Employers that typically communicate with employees in languages other than English and Spanish should monitor the Labor Commissioner’s website for templates in other languages.
All employers should monitor the website for updates to the state’s template notice annually.