California ‘Workplace Know Your Rights Act’ Template Notice Now Available

Quick Hits

• Under the new California “Workplace Know Your Rights Act,” employers must provide a stand-alone written notice to employees by February 1, 2026, detailing workers’ compensation, immigration-related protections, union organizing rights, and other key legal rights.
• The California labor commissioner has provided a template notice in English and Spanish, with plans to offer additional translations in several other languages soon.
• Employers must distribute the notice to current employees by February 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, using methods like personal service, email, or text message, and must also provide it to new hires upon employment and to collective bargaining representatives annually.

What does the template notice say?

The new law, codified at California Labor Code sections 1550-1559, 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, 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 law also requires that the notice include a list of any new legal developments that the labor commissioner deems “material and necessary.”

The Labor Commissioner’s Office states that it intends to post an updated template notice annually.

When and how should employers send the notice?

Employers must provide the notice:

• to current employees, on or before February 1, 2026, and then annually, in a manner normally used to communicate employment-related information, such as by 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, annually, by electronic or regular mail.

Language requirements

Employers must provide the notice 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. The labor commissioner has already provided the template notice in English and Spanish, and states that it will soon provide the template notice in Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Punjabi, Tagalog, Urdu, and Vietnamese.

Next Steps

Employers may want to determine the best distribution method; timely provide the notice; and keep compliance records for three years, including the date that each notice is provided or sent.

Ogletree Deakins’ California offices will continue to monitor developments and will post updates on the California, Immigration, and Traditional Labor Relations blogs as additional information becomes available.

In addition, the Ogletree Deakins Client Portal covers developments in California employment laws, including California Onboarding (where the Workplace Know Your Rights Act requirements are included in the update field and under the Miscellaneous tab) and California Workplace Posters. Premium subscribers have access to details about California laws and downloadable templates. All client-users have access to updates. For more information on the Client Portal or a Client Portal subscription, please reach out to clientportal@ogletree.com.

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