Existing law, the Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, provides that it is the policy of the state to encourage and protect the right of agricultural employees to full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing to negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment, and to be free from the interference, restraint, or coercion of employers of labor, or their agents, in the designation of such representatives, self-organization, or other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.
Other existing law relating to employment prohibits employers from making, adopting, or enforcing rules, regulations, or policies that forbid or prevent employees from engaging or participating in politics or from becoming candidates for public office, and from controlling or directing, or tending to control or direct, the political activities or affiliations of employees.
This bill, except as specified, would prohibit an employer from subjecting, or threatening to subject, an employee to discharge, discrimination, retaliation, or any other adverse action because the employee declines to attend an employer-sponsored meeting or affirmatively declines to participate in, receive, or listen to any communications with the employer or its agents or representatives, the purpose of which is to communicate the employer's opinion about religious or political matters.
The bill would require the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, upon the filing of a complaint by an employee, to enforce the bill's provisions. The bill would also authorize any employee who the employer has subjected, or threatened to subject, to adverse action on account of the employee's refusal to attend an employer-sponsored meeting to bring a civil action, as specified, and to petition for injunctive relief.