Legal Aid at Work welcomes Governor Newsom’s signing of AB 2495, a critical step forward in strengthening the workplace protections of immigrant workers and combatting employer conduct that capitalizes on workers’ legitimate fears of increasingly abusive and unfettered immigration enforcement actions.
We have seen bad faith employers increasingly exploit this fear, not in response to any anticipated or actual complaint, but preemptively to silence workers before they can raise an issue, or even fully discover their workplace rights. This new law bolsters existing protections for immigrant workers by targeting employer conduct that deters workers from accessing the workplace protections they are entitled to by law, even when such conduct is not clearly tied to any particular exercise of protected rights.
For years, our attorneys have represented immigrant workers facing wage theft, retaliation, discrimination, and dangerous working conditions who feared coming forward to assert their rights — often accepting substandard conditions. That fear is not unfounded, and employers’ immigration-related threats are more credible than ever. Undocumented workers who step forward to assert their rights take on real risk, and many are scared into silence. That silence undermines enforcement of California’s workplace laws for everyone.
Having labor rights on the books means little if workers cannot safely report violations and hold employers accountable. AB 2495 makes clear that California will not tolerate employers exploiting immigrant workers’ vulnerabilities to silence them.
Legal Aid at Work will continue to monitor the implementation of this law and represent workers whose rights are threatened by retaliation. We urge employers to review their practices accordingly, and we urge any worker who has experienced intimidation tied to their immigration status to contact our office.