As an employer in California, employee well-being and safety is always a top concern. A new state law now expands employers’ abilities to protect their employees.
Previously, employers could seek temporary restraining orders (TROs) against third parties on behalf of their employees — but only if the employee was on the receiving end of “unlawful violence” or “a credible threat of violence” from another individual. Senate Bill 428, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2025, broadens the law to include “harassment” as one of the reasons an employer may seek a TRO on behalf of one of their employees.
California Code of Civil Procedure section 527.8 gives employers the ability to file such TROs, but — up until this year under SB 428 — there wasn’t any recourse for employers to take preliminary steps to protect their employees who are subject to harassing conduct that has not escalated to violence or threats of violence.
Now, SB 428 gives employers the power to better protect employees who are not necessarily being threatened, but are still being harassed. SB 428 broadens CCP section 527.8 to include “harassment,” which section 527.8(b)(4) defines as “a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that seriously alarms, annoys, or harasses the person, and that serves no legitimate purpose. The course of conduct must be that which would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress, and must actually cause substantial emotional distress.”
This addition to section 527.8 significantly broadens the list of scenarios in which an employer may seek a TRO for its employees; employers no longer have to try and prove incidents of violence or credible threats of violence. Harassing conduct can include everything from unwanted flirtation to outright beratement and belittling. Now, employers do not have to wait for the harassment to escalate to violence and can better ensure their employees’ well-being and safety at the workplace.
Employers should take steps to ensure their employees are aware of the stronger protections against harassment. For information on this update law or to discuss workplace harassment law issues, please contact an attorney in Duckor Metzger & Wynne, APLC’s Employment & Labor Law practice group.
DMW Litigation Paralegal Adam Roppo co-wrote this article.