On any given day in California, millions of workers go to work without knowing their most fundamental legal rights. They do not know what happens if immigration agents show up at their worksite. They do not know their constitutional right to remain silent when confronted by law enforcement. They do not know who to contact if they are injured on the job. And for years, California law did not require anyone to tell them.

That changed when Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 294 — the Workplace Know Your Rights Act — in October 2025. Starting February 1, 2026, every California employer is required by law to tell every worker, in writing, what their rights are. This is not a voluntary notice. It is a legal mandate, with penalties for noncompliance reaching up to $10,000 per employee.

If your employer has not given you this notice, they may already be in violation of California law.

What Is SB 294 and Why Was It Passed?

Senate Bill 294 was authored by Senator Lena Gonzalez and signed into law by Governor Newsom in October 2025. It adds Labor Code sections 1550 through 1559 to California law and establishes the Workplace Know Your Rights Act as a permanent, annually recurring employer obligation.^[1]

The timing was not coincidental. The legislation was adopted against a backdrop of growing concern over federal enforcement activity at workplaces, particularly immigration related actions. The Senate Judiciary Committee analysis expressly referenced public statements and actions from the Trump administration signaling expanded workplace enforcement and detention efforts as a basis for the notice requirements.^[2] The Legislature framed SB 294 as an educational and protective measure: to equip workers with baseline knowledge of labor, civil, and constitutional rights by requiring employers to distribute that information systematically and in writing.

The law applies to all California employers, regardless of size. Whether a company has two employees or two thousand, the obligation is identical.^[3]

The Seven Categories Your Employer Must Disclose

SB 294 requires the notice to cover at least seven specific categories of worker rights. The California Labor Commissioner has published a model template notice, available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi, which employers may use or adapt to meet the requirement.^[4] The notice must be provided in the language the employer normally uses to communicate with that employee about employment matters.^[5]

The Emergency Contact Requirement: A New Lifeline for Workers

Beyond the written rights notice, SB 294 contains a provision that directly addresses the reality of immigration enforcement at California worksites. By March 30, 2026, every California employer was required to provide all current employees with the opportunity to designate an emergency contact, and to specify whether that contact should be notified if the employee is arrested or detained while at work or during work hours.^[6]

This is not a trivial formality. If an employee opts in and the employer has actual knowledge that the employee was arrested or detained at the worksite or during work hours, the employer is legally required to notify the designated contact. The law was designed with immigration enforcement scenarios in mind: a worker detained by immigration authorities while on the job would previously have had no guaranteed mechanism to notify family members or an attorney. SB 294 creates that mechanism as a legal obligation on the employer's side.^[7]

For new hires, this emergency contact designation must be collected at the time of hire going forward. The employer must also allow employees to update their emergency contact information at any time throughout their employment.^[4]

What Happens If Your Employer Does Not Comply?

SB 294 authorizes enforcement by the California Labor Commissioner and by public prosecutors. The penalties for noncompliance are real and can escalate quickly. An employer who fails to provide the annual written notice faces a civil penalty of up to $500 per employee for each violation. For violations related to the emergency contact obligation, the penalty is up to $500 per employee per day the violation continues, with a maximum cap of $10,000 per employee.^[8]

Equally important: SB 294 contains an explicit anti-retaliation provision. It is unlawful for an employer to discharge, threaten to discharge, demote, suspend, or in any manner discriminate or retaliate against an employee for exercising or attempting to exercise their rights under the Act.^[9] If your employer fires you, cuts your hours, or otherwise punishes you for asserting your SB 294 rights or for designating an emergency contact, that retaliation is itself a separate legal violation.

Employers are also required to maintain compliance records for three years. If a dispute arises, the three year recordkeeping requirement gives the Labor Commissioner and employees a clear evidentiary trail to establish whether the notice was actually provided or ignored.^[5]

Why This Law Matters for Every California Worker

SB 294 is not only relevant to immigrant workers, although its protections in that context are particularly significant given the current federal enforcement climate. The law is designed to give every California worker a baseline understanding of rights that employers have long been able to assume employees did not know. Knowing your right to remain silent when law enforcement enters your workplace, understanding your workers compensation entitlement, and knowing your right to notice before your employment records are inspected — these are fundamental protections that affect workers across every industry and immigration status.

The notice requirement is simple in concept: your employer must hand you a document, in your language, that tells you what you are legally entitled to as a worker in California. If that document has not reached you, your employer may already be in violation of the law and may owe you the protections that the notice was designed to deliver.

The Bottom Line

SB 294 is one of the most practically significant worker protection laws California has enacted in years, not because it creates new substantive rights, but because it requires employers to actively make workers aware of the rights they already have. The law recognized a gap that workers and advocates have long identified: rights you do not know you have are rights you cannot enforce.

If your employer has not provided the required Know Your Rights notice, or has punished you for asserting your rights, or has failed to allow you to designate an emergency contact, they are in violation of California law. At Smith Reback Law, we represent California employees whose workplace rights have been violated — including the right to the information the law requires your employer to give you. Your consultation is completely confidential and costs nothing.