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August 19, 2024
Hawaii has joined Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New York, and Oregon to prohibit employers from requiring employees to attend certain employer-sponsored meetings.
Specifically, effective July 2, 2024, Hawaii enacted the Captive Audience Prohibition Act. See SB 2715. The law amends Hawaii’s Unfair Labor Practices Law by prohibiting employers from discharging, disciplining, or otherwise penalizing or threatening any adverse employment action against an employee because the employee declines to:
“Political matters” are defined as “anything related to an attempt to influence a future vote by persons in an audience.” If meeting attendance is voluntary, the law does not limit an employer’s right to conduct the meeting.
Laws similar to Hawaii’s have been or are now being challenged in court on the basis that they allegedly violate an employer’s First Amendment free speech rights or are preempted by the National Labor Relations Act. Hawaii’s law may be challenged as well. For now, employers must be cautious about the content of their mandatory meetings, including, but not limited to, discussions about unionization or the upcoming Presidential election.
The author of this article, Patricia Tsipras, is a member of the Bar of Pennsylvania. This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice in Pennsylvania, Hawaii, or any other jurisdiction, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship with any reader of the article where one does not exist. Always consult an attorney with specific legal issues.
