Temporary restraining orders and protective orders: employee harassment.

Existing law authorizes any 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 and an injunction on behalf of the employee and other employees of the employer. Existing law 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 and that a great or irreparable harm would result to an employee if the order is not issued. Existing law prohibits issuing such an order to the extent that the order would prohibit constitutionally protected speech, specified activities related to dispute resolution between employers and employee organizations, or other law. This bill would additionally authorize any employer whose employee has suffered harassment, as defined, to seek a temporary restraining order and an injunction on behalf of the employee and other employees upon a showing of clear and convincing evidence that an employee has suffered harassment, that great or irreparable harm would result to an employee, and that the respondent's course of conduct served no legitimate purpose. The bill would also require an employer seeking such a temporary restraining order to provide the employee whose protection is sought the opportunity to decline to be named in the order, before the filing of the petition. The bill would expressly prohibit a court from issuing such an order to the extent that the order would prohibit speech or activities protected by the federal National Labor Relations Act or specified provisions of law governing the communications of exclusive representatives of public employees. This bill's provisions would become operative on January 1, 2025. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 527.8 of the Code of Civil Procedure proposed by SB 553 to be operative only if this bill and SB 553 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.