Hi there, first time poster here! Normally I’m pretty good at looking up stuff like this, but my research has failed me this time so I hope people here can turn me in the right direction.
So I work in a customer facing position in finances out of California and my job has recently started collecting signatures for a petition that would expand a hospital, and is asking the employees to discuss the petition with customers and ask them to sign. Not only this, but we’re being required report how many signatures we collected that day, and I was just informed that we are expected to collect a certain number of signatures per day by location.
Is this legally something an employer can require of their employees whose jobs are not in any way involved with professional petitioning nor political campaigning? We were not asked to volunteer, we were voluntold, and frankly I’m not a fan of my job using me as a political tool, even if it is for something I would support.
As of yet there hasn’t been any disciplinary action or meetings or anything like that, but I’d like to figure this out before that happens if it happens. At least one of my other coworkers feels similarly, though I’m hesitant to discuss it much further for fear of potential retaliation.
I would be greatly appreciative of any advice you can offer, and if any of you can provide me with citations and references, even better.