Under California’s new “Workplace Know Your Rights Act” (SB 294, Reyes, D-Colton), employers must a “right-to-know” notice to their employees by February 1, 2026. SB 294 sought to ensure that employees are better informed about labor protections, immigration-related rights, and workplace-based constitutional protections.

Employers must distribute the notice to current employees by February 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, using methods like workplace distribution, personal service, email, or text message, and must also provide it to new hires on the beginning of employment.

AB 294 requires employers to provide a “stand-alone written notice” addressing workers’ compensation, protections against unfair immigration-related practices, the right to notice of federal immigration inspections (as required by AB 450, 2016), the right to organize a union in the workplace, constitutional rights when interacting with law enforcement at the workplace, and rights related to designating an emergency contact to be notified if the employee is arrested or detained while at work.

The Labor Commissioner’s Office has indicated it will update the  template notice annually.

Employers must provide the SB 294 notice:

• to current employees, on or before February 1, 2026 and then annually thereafter in a manner normally used to communicate employment-related information to employees, such as by worksite distribution, personal service, email, or text message, if it can reasonably be anticipated to be received by the employee within one business day of sending;
• to new employees, upon hire; and,
• to an employee’s exclusive collective bargaining representative (if applicable) annually by electronic or regular mail.

SB 294 notices must be provided in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to an employee and which the employee understands if the template notice is available in that language on the Labor Commissioner’s website. Otherwise, the notice may be provided in English.

FELS members can find the notices in English and Spanish at FELS Resources: HR Compliance: Workplace Right-to-Know notice.