Effective August 15, Louisiana will join a growing number of “red” states that have limited employer policies banning guns from the workplace. Under the new law (Senate Bill 51), employers may not prohibit employees from storing “lawfully possessed” firearms in their locked personally owned or leased vehicles while parked on company property.
The new law does not limit an employer’s right to prohibit employees from carrying firearms on their person while at work or on company property when outside of their personal vehicles or from carrying or storing firearms in company-owned or -leased vehicles provided to employees for their business and personal transportation. The new law also expressly allows employers to require that any firearms stored in employees’ personal vehicles be hidden from plain view or locked in a case or container within the vehicle.
We will provide more information on this controversial law in the next issue of Louisiana Employment Law Letter.