Internal prototype — noindexed, not linked from public navigation yet.

Cal. GOV § 3553

This is the official text of Cal. GOV § 3553, part of California’s Government Code — covers the structure and operation of state and local government, including public employment and public records.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

(a) This section shall apply only when an employee organization has been recognized or certified by the governing body of the public employer or the Public Employment Relations Board as the exclusive representative of employees in a bargaining unit.

(b) If a public employer chooses to disseminate mass communications to public employees or applicants to be public employees concerning public employees’ rights to join or support an employee organization, or to refrain from joining or supporting an employee organization, it shall meet and confer with the exclusive representative concerning the content of the mass communication.

(c) If the public employer and the exclusive representative do not come to agreement on the content of a public employer’s mass communication covered by this section, and if the public employer still chooses to disseminate the mass communication, the public employer shall distribute to the public employees, in addition to, and at the same time as, its own mass communication, a communication of reasonable length provided to the public employer by the exclusive representative. The exclusive representative shall provide the public employer with adequate copies of its own mass communication prior to distribution.

(d) This section shall not apply to a public employer’s distribution of a communication concerning public employee rights that has been adopted for purposes of this section by the Public Employment Relations Board or the Department of Human Resources.

(e) For purposes of this section, a “mass communication,” means a written document, or script for an oral or recorded presentation or message, that is intended for delivery to multiple public employees.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

Need a lawyer in California?

Find a California lawyer
About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.