A host of new labor and employment law obligations took effect on Jan. 1, 2025. One such obligation relates to the posting of a notice informing employees of their rights as potential whistleblowers.
California law requires employers to post a notice that includes information regarding employees’ rights and protections under the state’s whistleblower laws. Last summer, Assembly Bill 2299 was adopted and signed into law, requiring the California labor commissioner to create and publish a model notice of employees’ rights and responsibilities under the state’s whistleblower law. The labor commissioner recently published the model notice.
Employers are free to develop their own posting with the required information, however, so long as the lettering is at least 14-point typeface and the posting includes the state’s whistleblower hotline number: 1-800-952-5225. The notice must be posted as of Jan. 1, 2025.
According to the author of AB 2299, the new notice is needed to codify a requirement for the labor commissioner to develop a model poster that lists employees’ rights and responsibilities under whistleblower laws in compliance with existing posting requirements; it’s also needed to clarify that employers that display that model poster have fulfilled the existing posting mandate.
All employers in California should ensure they are in compliance with this and other notice-posting requirements. A regular review and audit of these posting requirements is recommended.
What About Remote Employees?
The law does not provide any guidance regarding how employees working remotely should receive the notice. However, Labor Code Section 1207, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2022, allows employers to distribute information to employees by email with the document or documents attached. For remote workers, the employer should distribute the required notice (along with other required postings) via email, but that does not alter an employer’s obligation to physically display notices in the workplace.
Fay Kouei Saechao and Bruce J. Sarchet are attorneys with Littler in Sacramento, Calif. © 2025 Littler. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission.
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