New California Form Helps Employers Comply With Immigrant Worker Protection Act

The California Labor Commissioner's Office has released a template notice form to help employers comply with the posting requirements under California Labor Code section 90.2(a)(1), also known as the Immigrant Worker Protection Act or AB 450, which requires employers in California to notify their workforces within 72 hours of any immigration law compliance inspection or audit initiated by federal agencies. The template notice form is a one-page document that allows employers to satisfy the AB 450 notice requirement by simply checking appropriate boxes on the form, filling in dates, and posting the notice (together with the inspection notices received from the federal immigration agency) in a conspicuous location. The template notices are available in English and Spanish, and they can be downloaded from the state agency's website.

AB 450

Effective January 1, 2018, employers in California are prohibited, with limited exceptions, from providing voluntary consent to immigration agents to enter nonpublic areas of the workplace without a judicial warrant. Employers are also prohibited from voluntarily consenting to allow an agent to access, review, or obtain employee records without a subpoena or court order. However, federal immigration agencies (usually the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency) may still request an employer's I-9 verification records by serving a Notice of Inspection to the employer.

Under the new California law, employers must notify affected employees within 72 hours of receiving such...