Current Status
Assembly Bill 1331 has advanced through the Assembly and is currently pending further review in the Senate. The bill has been heavily debated and amended, reflecting intense friction between labor unions seeking privacy and industries demanding security, but it maintains a strong trajectory toward passage.
Employment Litigator Comments Defense attorneys view AB 1331 as a significant operational and legal hazard. By establishing strict boundaries on where and when surveillance can occur, litigators warn that plaintiffs will leverage discovery to uncover technical violations—such as a security camera’s field of vision inadvertently capturing a portion of an employee breakroom. With civil penalties set at $500 per employee per violation, defense counsel anticipates a surge of litigation over seemingly innocuous security measures.
Business Community Comments
The business community, including the California Chamber of Commerce and agricultural councils, remains fiercely opposed. Employers argue that AB 1331 fundamentally undermines workplace safety and violence prevention efforts by establishing blind spots across company property. Employers express particular concern that allowing employees to disable tracking devices on company-owned equipment (like vehicles or phones) during off-duty hours invites theft, misuse of corporate assets, and liability if an incident occurs while the device is “dark.”
Nuts and Bolts of the Requirements AB 1331 prohibits employers from monitoring or surveilling workers in designated off-duty areas, including bathrooms, locker rooms, breakrooms, designated smoking areas, and employee cafeterias. It bans data collection regarding the frequency of use of these private areas. Furthermore, it grants workers the affirmative right to disable or leave behind workplace surveillance tools that are on their person or embedded in employer-issued equipment (such as tracking apps on company phones) during off-duty hours.
Compliance Guidance
Facility managers must conduct physical walk-throughs to evaluate the positioning of all CCTV and security cameras. If this bill passes, any cameras capturing breakrooms, locker areas, or cafeterias must be removed or permanently repositioned. Additionally, IT departments must reconfigure Mobile Device Management (MDM) software to ensure that location tracking and microphone access on company property can be verifiably disabled by the employee outside of working hours.
Why You Need to Work With a Business Attorney Because of This Bill
If AB 1331 is enacted, a business attorney will be critical to restructuring your company’s equipment policies. Counsel can help prepare your business by drafting legally binding “Acceptable Use Policies” that clearly define when an employee is considered “off-duty” and exactly under what conditions they are permitted to disable tracking on company vehicles or laptops. An attorney can also review your physical security plan to ensure your camera placements do not violate the new privacy zones, shielding your enterprise from costly statutory penalties.