Assembly Bill 1732, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September 2016, becomes effective March 1, 2017. California employers will need to comply with this legislation that requires all single-occupancy bathrooms to be identified as “all gender” and available to all persons, regardless of gender or gender-identity. Single occupancy bathrooms are identified as toilet facilities with no more than one water closet and one urinal with a locking mechanism controlled by the user. This law does not apply to restrooms containing more than one toilet, or more than one toilet and urinal combinations, without a lock controlled by an entrant.
To make sure they are in compliance, businesses should change any signage that designates the single occupancy restroom as male or female only to be “gender neutral”, meaning the sign should contain figures of both a male and female. Public inspectors or building officials may check that the bathrooms are in compliance. Employers should also inform their managers and employees of the changes in advance of the effective date as it will impact both the employees and customers who use the facilities.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that employers make toilet facilities available so that employees can use them when they need to do so, and the employer may not impose unreasonable restrictions on employee use of the facilities. All employees, including transgender employees, should have access to restrooms that correspond to their gender identity.
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