Ep. 576 California “Know Your Rights” Notice: Important Dates for Employers

Rancho Mesa’s Alyssa Burley and Client Technology Specialist, Brenda Colby sit down to discuss important dates that employers need to know regarding new employee protection laws in California.

Show Notes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠

Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Alyssa Burley

Guest: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Brenda Colby

Editor: Jadyn Brandt

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “Breaking News Intro” by nem0production

© Copyright 2025. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript

AB: You're listening to Rancho Mesa StudioOne podcast, where each week we break down complex insurance and safety topics to help your business thrive. I'm your host, Alyssa Burley, and I'm joined by Brenda Colby, Client Technology Specialist with Rancho Mesa. And we're going to talk about some important dates that employers need to know regarding new employee protection laws in California. Brenda, Welcome to the show.

BC: Hi, Alyssa, happy to be here.

AB: At the end of 2025, Rancho Mesa hosted our annual Employment Law Update Workshop, which covered a number of new laws that went into effect in California on January 1st. And although these laws went into effect on the first, employers have a bit more time to reach compliance in some cases. So today, we're going to focus specifically on the new employee protections and emergency contact requirements in California. Brenda, can you tell us what employers need to know to stay compliant with California's Know Your Rights Notice?

BC: The California Labor Commission provides notice templates in both English and Spanish and additional languages are expected to be made available soon. This notice should be shared with employees by February 1st of this year and employees hired after February 1st should receive this notice when hired. And employers will also need to keep records of having provided the notice for at least three years.

AB: There are also new emergency contact requirements in California. Brenda, will you explain what's changed?

BC: Well, by March 30th, 2026, employers must give employees the opportunity to name an emergency contact and designate if that person should be notified if the employee is arrested or detained while at work. If an employee indicates they want their employer to reach out to their emergency contact in the case of an arrest or detention, the employer will be obligated to notify the emergency contact. And employees can update their emergency contact information and their choice to be notified at any time.

AB: Plus, employers should also note, if an arrest or detention happens outside of the workplace, but during work hours or while the employee is doing work, the employer is only obligated to reach out to the emergency contact if they are aware of the situation.

Now, Brenda, will you share with our listeners some of the resources Rancho Mesa has available for clients to help ensure they're up to date with all the new workplace laws?

BC: Absolutely. So as you mentioned at the start of this episode, we hosted our annual employment law workshop just a few months ago, and the recording of that webinar is available to clients, and we'll share a link to that in the episode notes. And if employers need to create a new employee handbook or make updates to their existing company handbook or policies, the smart handbook builder in Rancho Mesa's RM365HRAdvantage portal is an excellent resource for that.

If employers are using the handbook within our HR portal, they will also leave alerts when any laws or regulations have changed throughout the year, and once they accept the change, their employee handbook will automatically be updated for them, keeping them in compliance.

Plus, other legal updates can be found on the law alerts page in the HR portal as well.

AB: Yeah, so Brenda, if listeners have questions about using our HR portal or other resources, what's the best way to get in contact with you?

BC: As always, clients can contact me at bcolby@ranchomesa.com or call me directly at 619-486-6562.

AB: All right. Well, Brenda, thank you for joining me in StudioOne.

BC: Thanks for having me.

AB: Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share this episode and subscribe. For more insights like this, visit us at ranchomesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.