California Amends Rules on Required Whistleblower Notice

California has enacted legislation (Assembly Bill 2299) that clarifies requirements and compliance for the whistleblower protections notice. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2025.

The legislation:

• Requires the state’s Labor Commissioner to develop a model list of employees’ rights and responsibilities under the state’s whistleblower laws.
  
  
• Establishes that if the employer posts the model list, the employer will be deemed in compliance with an existing posting requirement.
  
  

The Details

Under existing law, employers must display a list of employees’ rights and protections under the state’s whistleblower laws. The notice must be in lettering larger than size 14-point type and include the telephone number of the whistleblower hotline.

While the Labor Commissioner has published a whistleblower protections notice in the past, the Labor Commissioner wasn’t required to do so, and it was unclear whether displaying it was enough for employers to comply with the posting requirement, according to proponents of Assembly Bill 2299.

The new law makes clear that employers will be deemed in compliance with the whistleblower protections posting requirement if they display the model list of employees’ rights and responsibilities created by the Labor Commissioner. The model list will be available on the Labor Commissioner’s website. Employers should make sure it is printed and displayed in lettering larger than size 14 point type.

Next Steps

• Make sure you have posted an up-to-date whistleblower protections notice in the workplace and it meets the requirements of the law.
  
  
• Watch the Labor Commissioner’s website for updated whistleblower protections notices.