California’s Captive Viewers Ban, aka SB 399 (Labor Code § 1137) is in a brief holding sample. A California district courtroom decide issued a preliminary injunction barring the federal government from imposing the statute for now.
What SB 399 would have carried out: it prohibited taking antagonistic motion in opposition to workers who decline to attend employer communications or conferences on “political” or “spiritual” issues, expressly together with union matters. The enterprise coalition difficult the legislation argues it’s preempted by the Nationwide Labor Relations Act and violates the First Modification. The courtroom’s order alerts these arguments are prone to succeed, not less than preliminarily.
Should you haven’t added SB 399 handbook language for 2025, you may maintain off whereas the injunction stands. It’s price noting that present standing federal steering nonetheless treats necessary union-related “captive-audience” conferences as illegal. In November 2024, the NLRB held that compelling attendance at employer union shows violates Part 8(a)(1) prospectively. Nevertheless, the NLRB at the moment lacks a quorum and can’t situation new choices or precedent however can regionally implement violations.
What to do now:
• Preserve any union-related conferences voluntary, not necessary, with affordable advance discover and no attendance monitoring or penalties.
• Practice supervisors on lawful do’s and don’ts (no threats, surveillance, or guarantees; keep on with factual, non-coercive messaging).
• Monitor the state litigation for appeals or modifications to the injunction. Monitor any motion on the NLRB degree.
Keep tuned for developments on this space.