Emergency Conditions

California law prohibits an employer, in the event of an “emergency condition,” from taking or threatening adverse action against the employee (i.e., retaliation) for refusing to report to, or leaving, a workplace because the employee has a “reasonable belief that the workplace is unsafe.”¹

An emergency condition is defined as:

• Conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons or property at the workplace or worksite caused by natural forces or a criminal act.
• An order to evacuate a workplace, worksite, worker's home, or the school of a worker's