A little more clarity.
A useful next step.

2026 requirements · SB 294. The first annual Workplace Know Your Rights notice was due February 1, 2026. Employers must distribute it annually and at hire, following the required language and delivery rules. A workplace poster does not replace this separate notice.

By March 30, 2026, employees also had to be offered the opportunity to designate an emergency contact and indicate whether that person should be notified of an arrest or detention. Notice to the designated person is required when the employee requests it and the law’s triggering circumstances apply.

Next step: address any missed distribution, keep delivery records, add the notice and contact choice to onboarding, and calendar the annual renewal.

Labor Commissioner guidance and translated notices

Current requirements · Expanded uses under AB 406. California’s general minimum is five days or 40 hours per year, whichever is greater. Accrual, carryover, eligibility, and local rules still matter; a 40-hour balance is not the right answer for every employee or location.

AB 406 clarified paid sick leave use for jury service, subpoenaed witness appearances, and qualifying violence-related purposes. Beginning January 1, 2026, covered uses also include specified crime-related judicial proceedings for victims or their family members. Employees use available sick leave; this does not create an unlimited new bank.

Next step: update the policy and payroll leave codes, check local requirements, and train supervisors to route protected requests without attendance penalties.

Paid sick leave FAQs · AB 406: permitted uses

2025–2026 changes · AB 2499 and AB 406. California protects qualifying time off for survivors and, in specified circumstances, family members of victims. Additional purposes, including certain care, relocation, and support needs, apply at employers with 25 or more employees. The 2026 changes include protected attendance at specified crime-related judicial proceedings.

Covered employers must also address workplace safety accommodation requests and confidentiality. CRD’s notice must be provided at hire, annually, on request, and when an employee discloses a qualifying situation. Leave limits and coordination with other protected leave depend on the reason.

Next step: refresh the handbook and notice process, designate a confidential contact, and review requests individually.

CRD leave and accommodation notice · AB 406

Beginning January 1, 2027 · SB 1149. Covered bereavement leave expands to include a designated person: an individual related to the employee by blood or whose association is equivalent to a family relationship. The employee may identify that person when requesting leave.

Private employers with five or more employees generally must provide eligible employees with up to five days of job-protected bereavement leave. The employee generally must have worked for the employer for at least 30 days. The amendment does not increase the five-day entitlement or automatically make the leave paid. An employer may limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period; statutory exceptions and existing policy terms require review.

Next step: update the handbook and leave-request process, decide whether to use the designation limit, and train managers to handle requests and supporting records confidentially.

SB 1149: designated-person bereavement leave

Effective January 1, 2026 · SB 513. Employees’ rights to inspect and receive personnel records expressly include education and training records. When an employer maintains these records, they must identify the employee, provider, training date and duration, competencies covered, and resulting certification or qualification.

Personnel-record requests generally require a response within 30 calendar days of a written request, subject to the statute’s exceptions and limited extension by written agreement.

Next step: keep complete training records alongside your completion tracking, review access permissions, and assign an owner for personnel-file requests.

Labor Code section 1198.5

Future training-content requirement · Beginning January 1, 2028 · AB 1803. Covered California harassment-prevention training must include practical guidance on recognizing, reporting, and confronting workplace speech that vilifies, humiliates, or incites hatred based on protected characteristics.

This is a component of the existing training requirement, not a separate new course due in 2027. Training that already covers unlawful harassment and prevention of abusive conduct based on protected characteristics can satisfy the added component. Existing training hours, deadlines, and refresher requirements still apply.

Next step: confirm that your trainer or vendor will incorporate the required content, and coordinate manager guidance and workplace-conduct policies before the 2028 start date.

AB 1803: training content and January 2028 start

Ongoing requirements · SB 553 has applied since July 1, 2024. Covered general-industry employers need an effective written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, employee involvement, incident logging, initial and annual training, and at least annual plan review. A training certificate alone does not satisfy the plan requirements.

The exemption for a workplace with fewer than 10 employees present at any time also requires that it be inaccessible to the public and comply with the IIPP standard. Small size alone is not enough. Health care operations may fall under a different standard.

Next step: check coverage, put the plan into daily practice, and maintain the Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP), which is a separate, longstanding workplace safety obligation.

Cal/OSHA violence prevention guidance · Coverage and training requirements · IIPP resources

Ongoing requirement · Indoor standard effective July 23, 2024. California’s indoor heat rules generally apply when workplace temperatures reach 82°F. Requirements include drinking water, suitable cool-down areas, rest, training, and emergency response. Additional assessment and control requirements apply at higher temperatures or in certain higher-risk conditions.

Outdoor work has separate heat protections. Consider kitchens, warehouses, event spaces, field work, and community programs—not only conventional office settings.

Next step: assess actual conditions, identify who monitors heat, and make sure supervisors know when to activate the applicable protections.

Indoor and outdoor heat requirements · Indoor heat FAQs

Employment regulations effective October 1, 2025. California’s automated decision system rules clarify how employment discrimination protections apply to tools used in hiring and other employment decisions. Covered employment records, including automated decision data, generally must be retained for at least four years.

These rules are separate from the California Privacy Protection Agency’s privacy regulations, which have different coverage and compliance dates. Nonprofit status does not remove employment obligations, and employing people does not by itself make an organization a covered CCPA business.

Next step: inventory tools, review vendor terms and record retention, check for discriminatory effects, and assign an accountable human reviewer.

CRD employment regulations · Read the HR & AI explainer

Beginning July 1, 2027 · SB 947. California employers subject to the law may not rely solely on an automated decision system (ADS) to discipline or terminate an employee.

If the employer primarily relies on an ADS output, a human must corroborate the decision using the underlying data or relevant supporting information. An output that cannot be corroborated, or that the reviewer finds inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading, cannot be used for that decision.

When an ADS is primarily relied upon, the employee must receive a separate written postuse notice when told of the decision and may request a meaningful, objective description of their own data used. The law has specified exceptions; privacy obligations must be assessed separately.

Next step: inventory performance and monitoring tools, document the human review process, and prepare notice and data-request procedures before July 2027.

SB 947: human oversight and notices · Governor: September 2026 workplace AI laws

Beginning January 1, 2027 · AB 1331 and AB 1883. AB 1331 generally prohibits employers from using workplace surveillance tools to monitor employees in workplace bathrooms unless a court order permits it. Employees generally may leave surveillance tools behind when entering a bathroom, subject to specified exceptions.

AB 1883 generally prohibits an AI-enabled workplace surveillance tool from recognizing, inferring, or predicting an employee’s emotional state or collecting neural data measured from the central or peripheral nervous system. The law contains limited exceptions.

Next step: review cameras, audio monitoring, wearables, timekeeping, and vendor features. Disable or change covered functions and resolve any claimed exception with qualified support before January 2027.

AB 1331: bathroom surveillance · AB 1883: AI surveillance tools

2026 changes and 2027 planning · SB 464 and SB 1237. Covered private employers with 100 or more payroll employees must report pay data to CRD; a separate requirement applies to employers with 100 or more labor contractor employees. Apply CRD’s counting and California-connection rules before deciding whether a report is due.

Demographic information collected for this reporting must be kept separate from personnel records. The law expands reporting from 10 to 23 job categories beginning January 1, 2027. The annual submission deadline is the second Wednesday in May, covering the prior calendar year.

Beginning January 1, 2027 · SB 1237: the maximum court-imposed penalty for a subsequent failure to file a required report increases from $200 to $1,000 per employee. The initial-failure maximum remains $100 per employee. Confirm coverage and assign a reporting owner.

Next step: confirm coverage, restrict demographic-data access, and coordinate job-category mapping with payroll and any staffing partners.

CRD reporting guidance · SB 464 · SB 1237: reporting penalties

Effective January 1, 2026 · SB 617. When California WARN applies, notices must now describe whether the employer will coordinate transition services with the Local Workforce Development Board, another entity, or neither. If coordination is elected, it must occur within 30 days of the notice.

Notices also need the required Rapid Response and CalFresh information and employer and local-board contact details. These changes supplement the existing advance-notice rules; they do not mean every layoff requires a WARN notice.

Beginning January 1, 2027 · SB 951: when a required California WARN notice concerns a mass layoff, relocation, or termination caused wholly or substantially by AI or automation replacing positions, the notice must also identify the affected jobs and locations, functions being automated, and technology category. It must state “This notice is for a technology displacement” at the top. Existing WARN coverage and notice triggers still govern.

Next step: involve employment counsel early to assess state and federal coverage, deadlines, recipients, and the updated notice content before announcing a reduction.

EDD: 2026 notice changes · WARN coverage and process · SB 951: technology-displacement notice