California Employers Will Face New Labor Law Mandates
Business owners must adjust harassment training and bereavement leave policies to meet upcoming state law requirements.
Updated on Oct. 13, 2026 in Human Resources
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Governor Gavin Newsom signed three pieces of legislation that will modify California workplace standards for discrimination, bereavement leave, and training. These changes will impact how employers with at least five staff members manage personnel and compliance documentation starting in 2027.
Why it matters
These laws shift the compliance burden for California operators by expanding leave eligibility and updating required training curricula. Businesses must now update their internal handbooks and training modules to reflect these broader legal definitions and new educational content requirements.
The new laws impact all California businesses with five or more employees, which are already subject to existing mandates for one or two hours of harassment training. These updates include expanding bereavement leave to a five-day limit and defining a designated person annually.
The players
Gavin Newsom
The Governor of California who serves as the state's chief executive and signed these three workplace bills into law.
The details
Under the new mandates, employers must integrate anti-hate-speech training into their existing harassment prevention programs rather than creating a separate course. Additionally, the updated bereavement policy allows employees to select a designated person—someone who is not a relative—to qualify for up to five days of leave. This designation can be updated every 12 months, requiring HR departments to track employee selections for compliance purposes.
Timeline
January 1, 2027: Two of the new labor laws will take effect.
January 1, 2028: The new anti-hate-speech training requirement will take effect.
Market Landscape
These mandates extend the regulatory requirements established by the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. The legislation follows a pattern of increasing state-level workplace compliance burdens that require operators to frequently update standardized HR training modules.
Operators should review their current employee handbooks and training schedules to ensure compliance with the new definitions and mandates ahead of the 2027 deadline. Consult with legal counsel to revise existing bereavement policies and plan for the integration of hate-speech modules into established training sessions.
The takeaway
The new legislation expands employee rights regarding personal leave and adds specific training requirements for the workforce. Audit your current leave tracking processes and existing training vendors now to ensure they can accommodate these changes before the 2027 and 2028 enforcement dates.
Further reading
Review the full landscape of state compliance requirements in our Human Resources section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Newsweek.
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