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Workplace Protections for Victims of Violence in California
Status as a victim, or as the family member of a victim, is protected once the employer knows. Safety changes at work are part of the same statute.
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.
Status discrimination
Government Code § 12945.8 prohibits discharging, discriminating, or retaliating against an employee because of the employee’s status, or a family member’s status, as a victim, when the employee tells the employer or the employer already knows. A victim includes a person subjected to a qualifying act of violence. Those acts include domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and conduct that causes bodily injury or death, involves a firearm or other dangerous weapon, or is a threat of force to cause injury or death.
A family member includes a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, or domestic partner, and a designated person with a blood or family-like relationship. The employer may limit the employee to one designated person in a 12-month period for leave under this section. This part of the statute applies to employers of one or more people and to public employers. It is not limited to employers of five.
Safety accommodations
The employer must provide a reasonable accommodation for the employee’s safety at work. Examples in the statute include a transfer, reassignment, modified schedule, a changed work phone, permission to carry a phone, a changed workstation, a lock, help documenting violence that happens at work, or another safety procedure. The employer must engage in a timely, good-faith interactive process. An accommodation is not required if it would be an undue hardship, including a change that would make the workplace unsafe for employees generally.
The employer can ask for a signed statement that the accommodation is for a purpose the statute allows, and for certification of victim status. Certification can be a police report, a court order, a note from a counselor or health-care provider, or the employee’s own written statement. The employer must keep that information confidential, with narrow exceptions, and must tell the employee before a disclosure the law allows. Retaliation for requesting an accommodation is prohibited whether or not the request is granted.
Time off to go to court or to seek a restraining order is a related right, with its own rules. See time off after a crime or act of violence.
Related: Time Off After Violence · Retaliation Claims · Workplace Rights Notice