Fresh Off the Governor’s Desk: New Slate of Employment Laws for California Employers
Home / Fair Employment and Housing ActEmployers take note: a new slate of employment laws were signed into California law this month, with some taking effect as soon as January 1, 2018. Read on below to see how a few of these new developments may affect your business. AB 450: Employers Prohibited from Consenting to ICE Searches Signed by Governor Brown on October 5th, AB 450 prohibits California employers from voluntarily consenting to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers’ requests to search a workplace. Like other searches conducted by government officials, workplace searches conducted to enforce federal immigration law require either a judicial warrant or consent to search. AB 450 will remove the latter option, prohibiting employers from consenting to a search of any non-public premises or employee records and forcing immigration officials to pursue a judicial warrant in each case. As part of a broader effort to make California a “Sanctuary State,” AB 450 is intended to frustrate the Trump administration’s more robust enforcement of federal immigration law. However, in AB 450’s effort to protect undocumented workers and their employers from the hazards of immigration enforcement, the law puts employers in a tight spot between opposing state and federal interests. A first-time violation will penalize an employer with a…