The California Chamber of Commerce and the California Restaurant Association (CRA) have teamed up to stick up for the Constitutional rights of employers.

Specifically, they are challenging California’s new “captive audience” law known as SB 399 that chills employer speech.

SB 399 discriminates against employers’ viewpoints on political matters, regulating the content of employers’ communications with their employees, chilling and prohibiting employer speech.

It also encroaches on the National Labor Relations Act.

“SB 399 is clearly viewpoint-based discrimination, which runs afoul of the First Amendment. In addition, SB 399 is preempted by the NLRA,” said CalChamber President and CEO Jennifer Barrera.

In true California fashion, laws similar to SB 399 have been unsuccessfully enacted in other states.

As we saw during the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s important for employers to be able to talk to their workers about new rules and what they mean in the workplace. And in a state like California, where labor-backed legislators seek to control every inch of the workplace, workers might want to know about regulations or bills that could hurt the business as well as employee job security.

“This bill will chill that speech and is sure to make companies fearful of weighing in support of or opposition to legislation, candidates, ballot measures, and more,” the CalChamber warned in an opposition letter sent to legislators.