Existing law authorizes an employer whose employee has suffered unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence from any individual that can reasonably be construed to be carried out or to have been carried out at the workplace, to seek a temporary restraining order on behalf of the employee and, if appropriate, other employees. Existing law also requires an employer seeking a temporary restraining order to show reasonable proof that an employee has suffered unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence by the respondent, and that great or irreparable harm would result to an employee. Existing law prohibits issuing a temporary restraining order to the extent it would prohibit speech or other activities that are constitutionally protected or otherwise protected by law.
Effective January 1, 2025, Senate Bill 428 (SB 428) additionally authorizes an employer whose employee has suffered harassment to seek a temporary restraining order on behalf of the employee and, if appropriate, other employees upon a showing of clear and convincing evidence that:
For the purposes of SB 428, “harassment” is defined as “a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that seriously alarms, annoys, or harasses the person, and that serves no legitimate purpose … which would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress, and must actually cause substantial emotional distress.”
(SB 428 amends, repeals, and adds Section 527.8 of the Code of Civil Procedure.)