Under current federal law, employers may legally require workers to attend meetings during working hours that concern the employer’s views on politics, religion and similar matters. Hawaii recently joined several states—including Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New York, and Oregon—that have enacted laws restricting employers from requiring employees to attend such employer-sponsored meetings.

Hawaii’s Captive Audience Prohibition Act, Senate Bill 2715 (SB 2715), went into effect July 2 and is codified in Hawaii Revised Statutes Section 377-6. It expands Hawaii’s Unfair Labor Practices Law by prohibiting employers—acting individually or in concert with others—from discharging, disciplining, or otherwise penalizing or threatening any adverse employment action against an employee because the employee declines to:

• Attend or participate in an employer-sponsored meeting, or any portion of a meeting, which communicates the opinion of the employer about political matters; or
• Receive or listen to a communication from the employer that communicates the opinion of the employer about political matters.

SB 2715 defines “political matters” as “anything related to an attempt to influence a future vote by persons in an audience.” The law does not “limit the rights of an employer to conduct meetings or to engage in communications involving political matters as long as attendance by the employees is wholly voluntary.” SB 2715 broadly defines “employee” to include any...

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