California is the most recent state to ban so-called captive audience meetings, where employers might give speeches that discourage employees from joining unions or that promote that the company is anti-union in some way.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed The California Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act into law on Friday. The changes will go into effect Jan. 1.
“The new law will deter companies from communicating at all with their employees about certain issues,” California Assisted Living Association President and CEO Sally Michael told the McKnight’s Business Daily. CALA will work with members to ensure they are aware of the new requirements, she added.
Specifically, the law, except in certain circumstances “would prohibit an employer from subjecting, or threatening to subject, an employee to discharge, discrimination, retaliation, or any other adverse action because the employee declines to attend an employer-sponsored meeting or affirmatively declines to participate in, receive, or listen to any communications with the employer or its agents or representatives, the purpose of which is to communicate the employer’s opinion about religious or political matters and would require an employee who refuses to attend a meeting as described to continue to be paid, as specified.”
Under the new law, an employer that holds captive audience meetings would be subject to a $500 civil penalty.
“These captive audience bans are increasingly common across the country — and are tilting the balance of power to labor unions by preventing employers from exercising their protected free speech rights,” Danielle Krauthamer Zobel, a labor relations attorney with Fisher Phillips, wrote in an online post.
Opponents of the law, Zobel said, say that it is “overbroad” and does not define “employer-sponsored meetings” or “political matters.”
“California businesses have already expressed concern that such wide-sweeping language will have a chilling effect on free speech, particularly during future election seasons,” she wrote.
Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington also have laws banning captive audience meetings, according to the California Labor & Employment Law Blog.
