California AB 1331 Workplace Surveillance Bill Signed Into Law

California Workplace Surveillance Bill AB 1331 Is Now Law: What It Restricts

California Assembly Bill 1331, which restricts employer use of workplace surveillance tools in workplace bathrooms, was approved by the Governor on September 30, 2026 and chaptered by the Secretary of State the same day as Chapter 851, Statutes of 2026. It takes effect January 1, 2027. Our fuller report, which also covers the companion measure AB 1883, is at California enacts AB 1331 and AB 1883 on workplace surveillance.

Information last verified on October 1, 2026.

Update, October 1, 2026: The Governor signed AB 1331 on September 30, 2026 and the Secretary of State chaptered it the same day as Chapter 851, Statutes of 2026. This article has been updated from its original September 7, 2026 version, which reported the bill as awaiting presentment to the Governor. The section numbering in the enrolled text has also been corrected: the new part runs 1560, 1561, 1563, 1564 and 1565, with no section 1562 and no section 1566.

Status: Signed by the Governor and chaptered as Chapter 851, Statutes of 2026 on September 30, 2026; operative January 1, 2027. The Legislature's bill history log for AB 1331 records "09/30/26 Approved by the Governor." and "09/30/26 Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 851, Statutes of 2026." The bill had been enrolled and presented to the Governor at 1:30 p.m. on September 14, 2026. The chaptered text states no effective date of its own and carries no urgency clause, so under article IV, section 8, subdivision (c)(1) of the California Constitution it takes effect January 1, 2027.

Jurisdiction: California only. The act's findings state it addresses a matter of statewide concern and applies to all California cities, including charter cities.

What Happened

Assembly Member Elhawary introduced AB 1331 on February 21, 2025, with coauthors Assembly Members Bryan, Mark González, and Ward, and Senators Becker, Cortese, and McNerney. The bill passed the Assembly in 2025 and moved to the Senate, where it was amended several times through the summer of 2025.

On September 13, 2025, the Senate ordered AB 1331 to the inactive file at the request of Senator Limón, a procedural move that shelves a bill without killing it. The bill sat there for roughly eleven months.

The Senate pulled AB 1331 from the inactive file on August 21, 2026, and amended it that same day. Lawmakers amended it again on August 28, 2026, before the Senate read it a third time and passed it on August 31, 2026, by a vote of 28 to 5. The Assembly concurred in the Senate's amendments the same day and ordered the bill to Engrossing and Enrolling, the drafting step that precedes presentment to the Governor. The bill was then enrolled and presented to the Governor at 1:30 p.m. on September 14, 2026. On September 30, 2026 the history log added two final entries: "Approved by the Governor." and "Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 851, Statutes of 2026."

What AB 1331 Restricts

AB 1331 adds Part 5.8 to Division 2 of the Labor Code, the division that carries its employment regulation. The enrolled text numbers the new part's sections 1560, 1561, 1563, 1564 and 1565; it contains no section 1562 and no section 1566. Section 1560, subdivision (f), defines a "workplace surveillance tool" as "a system, application, instrument, or device that collects or facilitates the collection of employee data, activities, communications, actions, biometrics, or behaviors by means other than direct observation by a person," including "video or audio surveillance, continuous incremental time-tracking tools, geolocation, electromagnetic tracking, photoelectronic tracking, a photo-optical system, or other means." Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and weapon-detection body scanners are excluded from the definition.

The act's core rule is narrow. Section 1561, subdivision (a), states: "Unless directed by a court order, an employer shall not use a workplace surveillance tool to monitor or surveil employees in a bathroom located in the workplace." Subdivision (b)(1) gives an employee the right to leave behind any workplace surveillance tool on their person or in their possession when entering a bathroom. That right does not apply if the employee must remain available during a meal or rest period under federal or state law, and an employer may still check a device on the employee's one-time entry to and exit from the bathroom.

Two circumstances keep an employer out of violation under subdivision (c): an employee who voluntarily brings a device into the bathroom, and an employee who carries a badge or personal alarm system into the bathroom because an employer policy requires it for identification or safety purposes (or because it is needed to access a locked or secured bathroom), provided the device does not record audio or video and has no embedded or attached artificial intelligence.

Enforcement runs through the state, not through individual lawsuits. Section 1563 authorizes the Labor Commissioner to enforce the part through existing citation and hearing procedures in Labor Code Sections 98.3, 98.7, 98.74, or 1197.1, and separately authorizes a public prosecutor to enforce it under Labor Code Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 180). A civil action brought under either path may seek injunctive relief, punitive damages, and attorney's fees and costs, and an employer who violates the part is subject to a penalty of up to $500 for each violation, brought in superior court where the violation occurred or where the employer transacts business.

The chaptered text carves out uses an employer is required to make by federal law, existing state law, federal regulation, or existing state regulation, plus aircraft development for use in the national airspace and work on products or services for national security, military, space, or defense purposes, the latter only where a federal statute, federal regulation, or binding federal contract makes the use reasonably necessary. It does not include a separate exemption for small employers or unionized workplaces. Section 1564 also states that the new part does not limit any other state or local law, including Section 435, that gives employees equal or greater protection, and includes a standard severability clause.

What California Law Already Says About Employer Monitoring

California law already regulates some employer monitoring without AB 1331. Labor Code Section 435 has barred employers since 1999 from causing an audio or video recording to be made of an employee in a restroom, locker room, or room designated for changing clothes, unless a court orders it; a recording made in violation cannot be used by the employer for any purpose, and a violation is an infraction. See our overview of California's workplace recording rules for how that existing statute applies day to day.

Separately, Penal Code Section 632, part of California's two-party consent wiretapping law, makes it a crime to use an electronic recording or amplifying device to eavesdrop on or record a confidential communication without the consent of all parties, punishable by a fine of up to $2,500 per violation (up to $10,000 for a repeat violation) and up to a year in jail. That statute already shapes whether an employer can record conversations without consent in a California workplace.

AB 1331 does not replace either statute. New Section 1564, subdivision (a), states that the new part is not intended to limit any other state or local law, including Section 435, that provides equal or greater protection to employees. The two do not line up exactly: new Section 1561(a) reaches only "a bathroom located in the workplace," while Section 435 reaches a restroom, a locker room and a room designated for changing clothes, and Section 435's bar on an employer using an unlawfully made recording for any purpose has no counterpart in the new part.

What Happens Next

AB 1331 completed every remaining step. It cleared engrossing and enrolling on September 4, 2026, was presented to the Governor at 1:30 p.m. on September 14, 2026, was approved by the Governor on September 30, 2026, and was chaptered by the Secretary of State the same day as Chapter 851, Statutes of 2026.

The Governor acted inside the constitutional window. Article IV, Section 10, subdivision (a) gives the Governor the choice to sign a bill into law or veto it by returning it with objections to the house of origin. Because AB 1331 passed the Legislature before September 1 of the second calendar year of its two-year session and was in the Governor's possession on or after September 1, subdivision (b)(2) of that same section controlled: a bill not returned by September 30 of that year becomes a statute even without a signature. He signed it on September 30, 2026, so that automatic path never came into play.

What remains is the operative date. The act does not state its own operative date and carries no urgency clause, so Article IV, Section 8, subdivision (c)(1) of the Constitution governs: a statute enacted at a regular session takes effect on January 1 following a 90-day period from its enactment date, which is January 1, 2027 for AB 1331.

One codification question is still open. AB 1883, signed and chaptered the same day as Chapter 853, Statutes of 2026, also adds a "Part 5.8" to Division 2 of the Labor Code, titled "Workplace Surveillance Tools" and commencing at Section 1580, while AB 1331's Part 5.8 is titled "Workplace Surveillance of Employees" and commences at Section 1560. Two parts of the same division cannot carry the same number, so the codifier may renumber one of them. Treat the chapter numbers as the stable identifiers for the two acts and expect the final codified section numbers to differ from those printed in the bills.

Analysis: Why This Matters

The following is analysis from the Recording Law Editorial Team.

AB 1331's path illustrates how narrow a workplace-surveillance bill can become by the time it reaches a floor vote. The version the Senate passed on August 31, 2026, adds a single, bathroom-specific rule to a Labor Code that already restricts restroom and locker-room recording under Section 435 and already requires all-party consent for confidential-communication recording under Penal Code Section 632. The bill's other defined terms, including its broad definition of "workplace surveillance tool," matter mainly because they set the boundaries of that one bathroom rule, not because the bill regulates surveillance tools everywhere they are used.

The enforcement design is also notable. AB 1331 does not create a stand-alone lawsuit right for an individual employee; it channels enforcement through the Labor Commissioner's existing citation and hearing procedures and through public prosecutors, with a per-violation penalty capped at $500. That places it closer to California's existing wage-and-hour enforcement model than to a private right of action, an enforcement structure other states have used for their own workplace-monitoring measures, including Maine's 2025 employer-surveillance disclosure law.

What is settled now is the text and the chapter number. How the Labor Commissioner builds a citation practice around a bathroom-specific rule, and how the codifier resolves the duplicate Part 5.8 numbering AB 1331 shares with AB 1883, are the open questions, and nothing here should be read as forecasting either.

How This Affects You

AB 1331 does not change any employer's obligations before January 1, 2027. Until then, California employers and employees remain governed by existing law, including Labor Code Section 435's restroom and locker-room recording ban and Penal Code Section 632's consent requirement for recording confidential communications. Section 435 does not go away on that date; the new part sits alongside it.

Employers that already deploy workplace surveillance tools, from time-tracking systems to wearable recording devices, and employees who work under them, have until January 1, 2027 to account for the new bathroom-specific rule and its Labor Commissioner enforcement route. Our overview of employee data privacy law covers the broader landscape this new part sits inside.

This article was updated on October 1, 2026 to record the signing and chaptering of AB 1331.

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It describes a statute enacted on September 30, 2026 that takes effect January 1, 2027. Consult a licensed California employment attorney for advice about a specific situation.

Related articles

• California workplace recording laws
• Can an employer record conversations without consent?
• Employee data privacy law
• Maine's 2025 employer-surveillance disclosure law

Last updated: 2026-10-01. This is a developing story; details verified as of 2026-10-01.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is California AB 1331 law yet?

Yes. The Governor approved AB 1331 on September 30, 2026 and the Secretary of State chaptered it the same day as Chapter 851, Statutes of 2026. Because the act carries no urgency clause, its provisions take effect January 1, 2027 rather than immediately.

What does AB 1331 actually restrict?

As chaptered, AB 1331 adds Part 5.8, commencing with Labor Code Section 1560, to bar employers from using a workplace surveillance tool to monitor employees in a workplace bathroom, except under a court order, and gives employees the right to leave such tools outside the bathroom, subject to limited exceptions. The enrolled text numbers the part 1560, 1561, 1563, 1564 and 1565, with no 1562 and no 1566.

Does AB 1331 cover locker rooms, break rooms, or off-duty monitoring generally?

No. The act's operative restriction is limited to bathrooms located in the workplace. Locker room and changing room recording is instead already addressed by existing Labor Code Section 435, which AB 1331 expressly does not limit.

Who enforces AB 1331?

The act authorizes the California Labor Commissioner and public prosecutors to enforce it, including through citations and civil actions. Section 1563(d) provides that an employer who violates the part may be subject to a penalty of up to $500 for each violation. The act does not, by its text, create a separate lawsuit right for individual employees.

When does AB 1331 take effect?

January 1, 2027. The act does not state its own effective date and carries no urgency clause, so the general rule in Article IV, Section 8, subdivision (c)(1) of the California Constitution applies: a statute enacted at a regular session takes effect on January 1 following a 90-day period from its enactment date.

Does AB 1331 share a Labor Code part number with another new law?

Yes. AB 1883, chaptered the same day as Chapter 853, Statutes of 2026, also adds a Part 5.8 to Division 2 of the Labor Code, commencing at Section 1580, while AB 1331's Part 5.8 commences at Section 1560. Two parts of a division cannot carry the same number, so the codifier may renumber one of them. The chapter numbers are the stable identifiers, and the final codified section numbers may differ from those printed in the bills.