What Is California Labor Code §6311: The Right to Refuse Unsafe Work?

No employee shall be laid off or discharged for refusing to perform work in the performance of which this code, including Section 6400, any occupational safety or health standard, or any safety order of the division or standards board will be violated, where the violation would create a real and apparent hazard to the employee or their fellow employees.

What Is Labor Code 6311?

Labor Code 6311 protects your job and your pay when you refuse a task that would break a safety law and put you or a coworker in real danger.

An employer directs most of your work during a shift. Section 6311 draws one firm line. You may refuse a task if doing it would break this code, a Cal/OSHA safety standard, or a safety order. (The statute calls Cal/OSHA's safety arm "the division" and its rulemaking body "the standards board.") The task also has to create a real and apparent hazard to you or a coworker. If you refuse for that reason, your employer cannot lay you off or fire you. The statute names one example by name: work that would break Labor Code 6400, the rule that every employer must furnish a safe, healthful workplace.

"Real and apparent" is the standard the law sets. It is not a vague worry or a personal preference. The danger has to trace to an actual rule. It also has to be clear enough that a reasonable person in that job would see it too.

Section 6311 covers most workers who take direction from someone else in California. Labor Code 6303 already treats household domestic service as covered work, with a few narrow exceptions. This right covers a domestic work employee too. The one exception: a person whose household domestic service is publicly funded, including funded care for a recipient, client, or beneficiary who shares in its cost.

How Does Labor Code 6311 Work in a Real Workplace Situation?

You name the rule the task would break, decline only that task, and stay available for other safe work.

Start with the rule. Name the code section, Cal/OSHA standard, or safety order the task would break. Say how it creates a real and apparent hazard. A refusal under this law is narrow. It covers one unsafe task, not your whole job. Keep showing up. Stay ready to do other safe work.

Put the refusal in writing when you can. A short text or email to a supervisor works. Note the date and who you told. If Cal/OSHA regulates the condition, you can also report it to the division. Reporting a hazard and refusing one task are different protected acts. Labor Code 6310 covers the first one.

What Can You Recover If You Are Fired for Refusing Unsafe Work?

The law gives you a right of action for lost wages, filed with the Labor Commissioner under Labor Code 6312.

The statute's own remedy is direct. A worker laid off, fired, or not paid for a protected refusal can seek the wages lost for that time. Labor Code 6312 sends that claim to the Labor Commissioner. It uses the complaint process in Labor Code 98.7. That process sets real deadlines:

• File with the Labor Commissioner within one year of the violation. Good cause can extend this deadline.
• You may also file a separate complaint with the United States Department of Labor within 30 days. The Labor Commissioner must tell you about this right for a 6310 or 6311 complaint.
• The Labor Commissioner must notify both sides of its decision within one year after you file.
• A 6310 or 6311 decision, unlike most others, can be appealed to the Director of Industrial Relations. The director must rule within 10 days of the appeal.
• If an employer ignores a court order to reinstate you or post a notice, the penalty is $100 a day, up to $20,000, paid to you.

This process does not make you give up other legal options. The statute says these rights add to, and do not replace, any other remedy the law gives you.

How Is Labor Code 6311 Different From Labor Code 6310?

6310 protects you for speaking up about unsafe conditions. 6311 protects you for refusing to do one specific unsafe task.

Labor Code 6310 is the broader rule. It protects a worker who complains about unsafe conditions. It also covers a worker who joins a safety proceeding, sits on a joint safety committee, or reports a work injury. None of those workers can be fired or discriminated against for it. Section 6311 covers a narrower act: refusing one task tied to a specific safety violation and a real hazard. The two often travel together. A worker may complain under 6310, then refuse the specific task under 6311. Labor Code 6312 routes either complaint to the same Labor Commissioner process.

Neither section is the same as Labor Code 132a. That law covers retaliation for filing, or planning to file, a workers' compensation claim. The Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) decides those cases. A 6311 refusal happens before any injury or claim exists. A 6310 or 6311 complaint goes to the Labor Commissioner instead.

Does Labor Code 6311 Cover Refusing Modified Duty After an Injury?

No. Turning down a post-injury modified-duty offer is a different question with different rules.

Section 6311 protects a refusal made before anyone is hurt. It stops one safety violation from happening. It does not decide whether you must accept work your doctor has cleared after an injury. That depends on your medical restrictions and the terms of the offer. Accepting modified duty vs. refusing modified duty in California workers' comp covers that separate situation.

What Should You Save Before You Refuse Unsafe Work?

Write down the rule, the hazard, and what you told your employer, then keep every record of what happens next.

Name the specific standard, order, or code section the task would break. Describe the hazard in plain terms: what could happen, and to whom. Save texts, emails, or notes that show when you raised it and what your employer said back. If you stop getting paid or get sent home, keep your pay stubs and your schedule. Mark the date on a calendar. It starts the one-year Labor Commissioner deadline. If the same condition later causes an injury, or the refusal turns into a workers' compensation dispute, that record helps there too.

If you were laid off, discharged, not paid, or otherwise retaliated against for refusing a task you believed was unsafe, or a safety refusal turned into a workers' compensation claim, Eman Yazdchi reviews each matter individually. Call (661) 273-1780 or use the contact form to go over what happened and your options.