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California Workplace Rights Notice

Each item on the Civil Rights Department notice, California Law Prohibits Workplace Discrimination and Harassment, explained on its own page.

General education for California employees—not legal advice. Your facts and deadlines control. This is not a Workplace Rights Advocacy case result. It explains the Civil Rights Department workplace notice in plain English. It is not the poster and it is not a complete statement of every exception.

The department requires employers to post that notice. Government Code § 12950 and title 2, California Code of Regulations, section 11023. The Fair Employment and Housing Act is Government Code sections 12900 through 12999. The pages below follow the notice’s headings. They add the statute, the important limits, and links to the practice pages that already cover the same ground.

Harassment

• Who California Harassment Law Protects. Harassment of employees, applicants, unpaid interns, volunteers, and independent contractors is prohibited. That includes sexual harassment and harassment based on one protected characteristic or a combination of them.
• Employer Duty to Prevent Harassment in California. Every employer must take reasonable steps to prevent harassment and must give each employee information about sexual harassment and the remedies available.
• Sexual Harassment Training Requirements in California. Employers with five or more employees, and public employers, must train employees on preventing sexual harassment, including harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.

Discrimination and reasonable accommodations

• Workplace Discrimination and Protected Characteristics in California. Employers with five or more employees, and public employers, may not discriminate because of a protected characteristic—or a combination of them—in hiring, promotion, pay, benefits, layoffs, and other employment decisions.
• Workplace Language Restrictions in California. An employer cannot limit or prohibit the use of any language at work unless business necessity justifies the restriction and employees are notified of the rule and the consequences.
• Driver’s License Discrimination in California. An employer cannot discriminate against an applicant or employee because they have a California driver’s license or identification card issued to an undocumented person.
• Religious Dress and Grooming Accommodation in California. Employers must reasonably accommodate the religious beliefs and practices of an employee, unpaid intern, or applicant, including religious clothing, jewelry, and facial or body hair.
• Disability Reasonable Accommodation in California. Employers must reasonably accommodate an employee or job applicant with a disability so the person can perform the essential functions of the job.
• Workplace Protections for Victims of Violence in California. If the employer knows, it cannot discriminate or retaliate because an employee or a family member is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, or certain other violence. It must also provide safety-related reasonable accommodations.

Additional protections

• Criminal History and Hiring in California. Employers with five or more employees generally cannot ask about or consider conviction history until after a conditional offer, and then only through an individualized assessment.
• Off-Duty Cannabis Use and Employment in California. Employers generally cannot discriminate because of lawful off-duty cannabis use away from the workplace, or because a drug test found only nonpsychoactive cannabis metabolites.
• CFRA Leave in California. Eligible employees may take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave for their own serious health condition, to care for a family member or designated person, to bond with a new child, or for certain military needs.
• Bereavement Leave in California. Covered employees can take up to five days of job-protected bereavement leave within three months of the death of a child, spouse, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, or parent-in-law.
• Pregnancy Disability Leave in California. An employee disabled by pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition can take up to four months of job-protected leave and receive reasonable accommodations advised by a health care provider.
• Reproductive Loss Leave in California. Covered employees can take up to five days of job-protected leave after a failed adoption, failed surrogacy, miscarriage, stillbirth, or unsuccessful assisted reproduction.
• Jury Duty and Witness Leave in California. An employee who gives reasonable notice is protected from being fired or punished for jury service, or for missing work to testify under a subpoena or other court order.
• Time Off After a Crime or Act of Violence in California. Employees are protected when they take time off to go to court or seek legal relief, such as a restraining order, after they are the victim of a crime or certain violence. Larger employers have additional leave duties.
• Retaliation for Opposing Discrimination in California. An employer cannot retaliate because a person opposes, reports, or helps someone else oppose unlawful discrimination, including by an internal complaint or a complaint to the Civil Rights Department.

Remedies and filing a complaint

• FEHA Remedies for Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation. Remedies can include hiring, reinstatement, promotion, back pay, front pay, emotional distress damages, punitive damages, attorney’s fees and costs, expert fees, and orders to stop the unlawful practice.
• How to File a Civil Rights Department Complaint. A person who experienced discrimination, harassment, or retaliation may file with the Civil Rights Department. Independent contractors and volunteers may file if they were harassed.
• FEHA Complaint Deadline in California. Complaints generally must be filed within three years of the last act. If the person was under 18, the deadline is three years after the last act or one year after the 18th birthday, whichever is later.

How to reach the Civil Rights Department

File at calcivilrights.ca.gov/complaintprocess. Toll free: 800-884-1684. TTY: 800-700-2320. California Relay Service: 711. The department can help if a disability requires an accommodation to file. The filing page and the deadline page explain the next step.

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