A new California requirement means that emergency contact forms are no longer just administrative paperwork. They are now part of your legal compliance obligations.

By March 30, 2026, you must give current employees the opportunity to designate an emergency contact and indicate whether that person should be notified if you have actual knowledge that the employee has been arrested or detained during work hours. Going forward, you must provide the same opportunity to employees at the time of hire.

If you have not updated your forms yet, now is a good time to take a look.

What the Law Requires

The rule itself is fairly straightforward. You must give employees the opportunity to:

• designate an emergency contact
• update that contact information during employment
• indicate whether that contact should be notified if you have actual knowledge the employee has been arrested or detained during work hours

The law does not require employees to provide an emergency contact. It only requires that you give them the opportunity to do so.

That distinction matters when it comes to documenting compliance.

Why?

California lawmakers adopted this rule in response to concerns about employees who are detained at work during immigration enforcement actions.

When that happens, employees can disappear from the workplace suddenly, leaving family members unaware of what happened or where the employee has been taken. The law is intended to give employees the ability to identify someone who should be notified in that situation.

For employers, the takeaway is simple: the emergency contact form you have always used now carries additional legal significance.

Now What?

Fortunately, this is an easy compliance fix. Before the March 30 deadline, take a few practical steps.

First, review your existing emergency contact form. Many employers already have one, but it likely does not include a place for employees to indicate whether they want that contact notified if they are arrested or detained during work hours.

Second, update the form to include that option.

Third, distribute the updated form to current employees before the March 30 deadline.

Finally, make sure the updated form becomes part of your standard onboarding process for new hires.

If you use an HRIS or digital onboarding system, this is usually a quick adjustment.

Why Small Compliance Details Matter

In our experience, the compliance problems that cause the most frustration are rarely the complicated ones. They are the small procedural requirements that are easy to overlook.

A missed form. An outdated onboarding document. A process that was never updated after a change in the law.

None of these issues seem significant on their own, but they can create unnecessary exposure if regulators, or plaintiffs’ attorneys, start reviewing your workplace practices.

The Bottom Line

If you have not already updated your emergency contact process, now is the time.

Before March 30, 2026, make sure you give employees the opportunity to designate an emergency contact and indicate whether that person should be notified if you have actual knowledge the employee has been arrested or detained during work hours.