Workers' Rights
PROPOSED / DRAFT — WORKERS’ RIGHTS
POSITION
Workers should be free to work, negotiate, organize, change employment, and choose whether to join a labor organization. Pro-worker does not require being anti-business, and pro-business does not require being anti-worker.
WHY THIS MATTERS
A competitive economy depends on people being paid what they earned, working under lawful safety standards, reporting misconduct without retaliation, and moving between jobs without unnecessary government barriers.
PAY, CLASSIFICATION & RECORDS
MPA supports:
Timely payment of all earned wages
Clear wage statements showing hours, rates, deductions, and overtime
Recovery of unpaid wages and legally required compensation
Meaningful penalties for deliberate or repeated wage theft
Classification rules based on the actual working relationship rather than labels chosen to avoid legal obligations
Accessible procedures for workers and businesses to resolve good-faith classification disputes
Enforcement should distinguish intentional evasion from an honest mistake that is promptly corrected.
ORGANIZING & INDIVIDUAL CHOICE
Workers should be free to organize, bargain collectively, decline union membership where permitted by law, communicate about workplace conditions, and participate in lawful labor activity without intimidation or retaliation.
Labor organizations should be accountable to their members through transparent governance and financial reporting. Employers should not interfere with lawful organizing, and unions should not coerce workers or conceal material terms affecting dues and representation.
SAFETY & REPORTING MISCONDUCT
Workplace rules should focus on demonstrated hazards and practical prevention. Employees should be able to report unsafe conditions, wage violations, fraud, discrimination, or other illegal conduct without retaliation or blacklisting.
Serious injuries, repeated violations, and retaliation complaints should receive timely investigation. Workers and employers should receive notice of the allegations, access to relevant evidence, and a fair opportunity to respond.
WHAT WE WILL MEASURE
Public reporting should track wage claims resolved, wages recovered, serious workplace injuries, retaliation findings, investigation time, repeat violators, and licensing requirements eliminated or simplified.
Workers' Rights and Fair Employment
Overtime Integrity
Employers may not avoid overtime requirements through artificial job titles or false classifications.
Whether an employee qualifies as exempt should be determined substantially by the person's actual:
duties;
authority;
independence;
responsibility;
rather than the title printed on a job description.
Knowingly falsifying time records or requiring unpaid overtime should carry enhanced penalties.
Compensation Transparency
Job postings should disclose a genuine expected compensation range.
Employers should not advertise artificially broad ranges that do not realistically represent the compensation available for the position.
Employees retain the right to discuss their own:
wages;
benefits;
schedules;
working conditions.
Scheduling Rights
Large employers should provide reasonable advance notice of work schedules where operationally practical.
Repeated last-minute schedule changes made primarily for employer convenience may require additional compensation.
Reasonable exceptions should exist for:
emergencies;
healthcare;
public safety;
critical infrastructure;
unpredictable operations.
Rest and Fatigue
Workers should receive reasonable meal and rest opportunities based on shift duration and working conditions.
Safety-sensitive industries should establish fatigue-management standards where excessive working hours create a significant danger to employees or the public.
FAIR TERMINATION, PROGRESSIVE DISCIPLINE & WORKER SECURITY
Workers should not lose their livelihood because of an invented accusation, a hidden rule, personal retaliation, or a manager who refuses to address a correctable problem. Employers must remain able to remove dangerous, dishonest, persistently nonperforming, or genuinely unnecessary employees. The law should require a real reason, a fair process, and proportionate consequences without forcing a business to retain someone who cannot or should not remain in the job.
Coverage & Employer Size
Every employer must obey existing wage, discrimination, retaliation, whistleblower, military-service, leave, safety, and contract protections. Every employer must also provide the worker with the truthful primary reason for an involuntary separation in writing.
The complete just-cause, progressive-discipline, appeal, and transition-pay requirements below apply to an employer with 50 or more employees in the United States. Common ownership, common management, franchises under common operational control, labor contractors, staffing arrangements, and deliberately divided entities are counted together when separation is used to evade coverage.
A collective-bargaining agreement, employment contract, state law, or employer policy that provides greater protection remains enforceable. This policy establishes a federal minimum and does not reduce stronger rights.
Ninety-Day Probationary Period
The first 90 calendar days of employment are a probationary period unless the employer promises a shorter period. During probation, an employer may end employment for a documented, lawful, and honestly stated job-related or business reason without completing the full progressive-discipline process. Probation may not be used to conceal discrimination, retaliation, wage theft, whistleblower punishment, refusal to perform an unlawful act, or another prohibited reason.
A longer probationary period is permitted only when the nature of a licensed, safety-sensitive, apprenticeship, security-clearance, or specialized training position reasonably requires it. The longer period and its objective reason must be disclosed in writing before work begins and may not exceed 180 calendar days.
Just Cause After Probation
After probation, a covered employer may discharge an employee only for just cause or a legitimate nondisciplinary business separation.
Just cause means a reasonable, evidence-supported, job-related ground involving performance, attendance, conduct, qualifications, safety, security, lawful workplace rules, disruption of operations, or another legitimate business requirement. The employee must have known or reasonably should have known the relevant rule or expectation. Comparable cases must be treated consistently unless a documented material difference justifies different treatment.
A legitimate nondisciplinary separation may include an actual position elimination, lack of work, closure, reorganization, technological change, loss of funding or contract, or financial necessity. The employer must identify the real business basis and use objective, consistently applied selection criteria. A layoff may not be used as a false label for retaliation or personal favoritism.
Progressive Discipline for Correctable Problems
Ordinary performance, attendance, or lesser-conduct problems that can reasonably be corrected should ordinarily use:
Clear counseling or coaching identifying the problem and expected correction;
A written warning stating the evidence, required improvement, available assistance, and consequence of continued failure;
A final warning or performance-improvement period of at least 30 calendar days, unless a shorter period is objectively required by immediate operational or safety conditions; and
Termination only if the problem continues, the employee refuses reasonable correction, or the evidence otherwise establishes just cause.
A step may be repeated, combined, or skipped only when the seriousness of the conduct, documented prior related discipline, or immediate operational risk reasonably justifies it. An employee's prompt honesty, acceptance of responsibility, cooperation, restitution, and genuine corrective action must be considered as mitigating factors. Initial honesty does not erase serious harm, but it should count.
Gross Misconduct & Immediate Termination
Progressive discipline is not required when reliable evidence proves gross misconduct that makes continued employment unreasonable. Gross misconduct may include:
Workplace violence, a credible threat of violence, or deliberate serious intimidation;
Theft, embezzlement, material fraud, deliberate falsification, bribery, or sabotage;
Intentional disclosure or theft of protected trade secrets, personal information, security credentials, or other genuinely confidential property;
Serious harassment, discrimination, abuse, or retaliation established through a fair investigation;
A knowing safety or security violation creating a substantial risk of death, serious injury, major property loss, or material system compromise;
Serious insubordination involving a lawful and material instruction after the instruction and likely consequence are made clear; or
Job abandonment after three consecutive scheduled workdays without notice, when the employer makes reasonable efforts to contact the worker and no emergency, incapacity, or other good cause explains the absence.
An accusation is not proof. When facts remain disputed, the employer may remove the employee from the workplace or sensitive duties while conducting a prompt investigation. A suspension is paid unless preliminary documented evidence establishes a substantial safety, security, evidence, or property risk. Any unpaid suspension later found unsupported must be repaid in full.
Notice, Evidence & Opportunity to Respond
Before a final discharge, except when immediate removal is necessary, the employer must provide written notice of the proposed action, the specific reason, the controlling rule or expectation, a fair summary of the material evidence, and a reasonable opportunity for the employee to respond. Protected personal information, trade secrets, active criminal-investigation information, and genuine security details may be redacted, but redaction may not be used to hide the substance of the case.
The final notice must state the factual findings, effective date, transition pay, benefit status, property-return requirements, and appeal procedure. Reasons may not be fabricated or materially changed after the discharge merely to defend the decision.
Independent Internal Appeal
A covered employee has 10 calendar days after receiving the final notice to request an internal appeal. The appeal must be decided within 15 calendar days by a qualified person who did not make the original decision and is not subordinate to the original decision-maker. The employee may submit evidence, identify material errors, and be assisted by a representative where lawful.
The employer need not return a person to active duty while the appeal is pending. If the discharge is reversed, the employee receives reinstatement or an agreed equivalent remedy, full back pay, restored benefits and seniority, and correction of the personnel record.
Three Months of Transition Pay
A covered employee who completed at least one year of service and is involuntarily separated receives 12 weeks of base pay and 12 weeks of the employer's ordinary health-benefit contribution. An employee with less than one year of service after probation receives four weeks of base pay and four weeks of the employer's ordinary health-benefit contribution.
Transition pay is not required for proven gross misconduct, voluntary resignation, lawful retirement, expiration of a genuinely fixed-term or project-based job disclosed at hiring, or job abandonment. An employer may provide working notice, pay in lieu of notice, or a combination. Payments legally required under another program may be credited once, but the employee receives the greatest total protection and the same payment may not be counted twice.
Complaints, Review & Court Access
After the internal appeal is completed or its deadline expires, a worker may file with the designated labor agency. The agency must issue a written decision within 30 calendar days, an independent administrative appeal within the next 30 calendar days, and a final complaint or supervisory review within the next 30 calendar days. On day 91, administrative remedies are exhausted and the worker or employer may seek judicial review. The clock may not be restarted by transferring the case, changing its label, requesting duplicative information, or opening a nominally new file.
A worker seeking reinstatement or emergency protection from retaliation may request expedited temporary relief. Knowingly false employee evidence, fraud, theft, violence, or abuse of the process remains subject to proportionate discipline and applicable law.
Remedies & Penalties
A proven wrongful discharge may require reinstatement or front pay, back pay, lost benefits, unpaid transition compensation, correction of employment records, actual economic damages, reasonable attorney fees, and court costs. Interim earnings may reduce duplicative lost-wage recovery but do not erase statutory transition pay, attorney fees, or penalties.
A covered employer that knowingly violates the just-cause, notice, evidence, or appeal requirements is subject to a civil penalty of $25,000 per affected worker. Retaliation, deliberate evidence fabrication or destruction, a knowingly false stated reason, or a repeated substantially similar violation within five years carries a civil penalty of $100,000 per affected worker and may support double back pay. A merely technical violation promptly corrected without loss or prejudice may receive a warning or reduced penalty.
A manager, employee, investigator, or representative who commits an independently defined crime such as fraud, obstruction, evidence tampering, violence, theft, bribery, or perjury remains subject to the ordinary criminal law. A disputed employment judgment, standing alone, does not create a new prison offense.
Business and Worker Safeguards
This policy does not require an employer to create an unnecessary position, retain a dangerous person, ignore persistent failure, disclose protected information publicly, or continue operations it cannot sustain. A good-faith decision supported by contemporaneous evidence is not unlawful merely because another reasonable decision-maker might have chosen differently.
Employees must perform their duties honestly, follow lawful and reasonable rules, protect genuine employer property and confidential information, participate truthfully in investigations, and make good-faith efforts to correct identified problems. Worker protection and business accountability run both ways.
Core MPA standard: A job is not a favor that strips a person of dignity, and a business is not a hostage to an employee who refuses to perform. Correct ordinary problems when possible. Remove serious dangers when necessary. Require the truth, a fair process, and consequences that fit the conduct.
Freedom to Work
General Ban on Worker Noncompete Agreements
Workers should generally remain free to leave an employer and work for:
a competitor;
themselves;
a new startup;
another company in the same industry.
An employer should not own a person's future labor merely because that person once worked there.
Ordinary employee noncompete agreements should therefore generally be unenforceable.
Employers May Protect Real Trade Secrets
Freedom to work does not mean freedom to steal.
Employees and former employees remain prohibited from knowingly taking or disclosing legitimate confidential business information such as:
proprietary source code;
engineering designs;
formulas;
unreleased products;
manufacturing processes;
confidential algorithms;
protected research;
genuine customer trade secrets;
internal security information;
other legally protected trade secrets.
A worker can take their knowledge, experience, professional skill, and general expertise to another employer.
They cannot take the former employer's protected property.
Skills Belong to the Worker
An employee's general:
experience;
professional knowledge;
judgment;
skills;
education;
certifications;
relationships developed through ordinary professional activity
should not be treated as company property.
Learning how to perform a profession at one employer does not give that employer permanent ownership over the worker's career.
Confidentiality Agreements
Narrow confidentiality agreements should remain enforceable when they protect genuine confidential or proprietary information.
They should not be written so broadly that they effectively function as hidden noncompete agreements.
An agreement saying:
"Do not disclose our proprietary engineering process"
may be legitimate.
An agreement effectively saying:
"Everything you learned while working here belongs to us, so you cannot work in this industry"
should not be enforceable.
No Theft of Technology or Intellectual Property
Employees moving between competitors may not:
copy proprietary software;
steal technical drawings;
download confidential databases;
remove protected research;
copy internal source code;
disclose secret manufacturing methods;
transfer proprietary technology;
intentionally provide a competitor with protected trade secrets.
Intentional commercial theft should carry meaningful civil remedies and criminal penalties where appropriate.
No "Memory Noncompetes"
Employers should not be able to argue that a worker cannot join a competitor merely because the worker naturally remembers technical knowledge gained through ordinary employment.
The law should distinguish between:
General professional knowledge and skill
and
specifically identifiable protected trade secrets.
The former belongs to the worker.
The latter remains protected.
Customer Relationships
Employers may protect genuinely confidential customer information.
However, ordinary knowledge that certain companies or people exist should not automatically become a permanent employer-owned secret.
Restrictions should focus on actual theft or misuse of confidential information rather than simply preventing competition.
Employee-Created Inventions
Employment agreements should clearly identify when inventions or intellectual property created by an employee belong to the employer.
Employers should generally have rights to inventions created:
within the employee's assigned duties;
using substantial company resources;
specifically for the employer;
from protected company research.
An employer should not automatically own unrelated inventions created independently by an employee on personal time without substantial company resources merely because the person happens to work there.
Layoffs and Noncompetes
An employer that terminates or lays off a worker should not simultaneously claim the right to prevent that person from obtaining comparable employment elsewhere.
A company cannot reasonably say:
"We no longer want to employ you, but nobody else in this industry can employ you either."
Sale of a Business Exception
Narrow noncompete agreements may remain permissible when someone sells a substantial ownership interest in a business and receives compensation for its goodwill.
This is fundamentally different from restricting an ordinary employee.
Such restrictions should still be:
reasonable in duration;
reasonable geographically where relevant;
directly connected to the business sold.
Enforcement
Workers should be able to challenge unlawful employment restrictions without bearing financially ruinous litigation costs.
Courts should have authority to:
invalidate unlawful restrictions;
award damages where appropriate;
recover attorney fees in serious violations;
impose penalties for employers repeatedly using knowingly unlawful noncompete provisions.
Likewise, companies should retain strong legal remedies against employees who actually steal legitimate trade secrets.
Core MPA Standard
A company may protect its property, but it may not own its employees.
Workers are free to take their talent, experience, and knowledge elsewhere.
They are not free to steal proprietary technology, confidential information, or trade secrets.
Related policies: Occupational Licensing & Credential Recognition; Families & Child Care; Cost of Living & Economic Security; Consumer Rights.
Status: Proposed / Draft — not yet formally adopted.
Originally published: August 15, 2026.
Last updated: October 3, 2026.
Version: Draft 0.6.