SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Nondisclosure agreements would be banned from future discussions or negotiations on legislation in California under a new bill, slated to get its first hearing this week at the state Capitol.

Assemblyman Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, authored the legislation.

Nondisclosure agreements are legally binding contracts that prevent information-sharing with unauthorized parties. They are typically used to protect proprietary information, financial data or other sensitive information.

The introduction of the bill was prompted by the use of NDAs during negotiations between fast-food industry and labor groups over a landmark deal to raise California’s minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20 per hour.

“It’s unacceptable,” Fong said in an interview. “Transparency is the foundation of our democracy. We need transparency to build trust and confidence in how laws are being made.”

Fong pointed to questions around which food establishments the new law, which took effect April 1, applies.

A complicated carve-out regarding bread “produced” and baked onsite led to reports that the law would not apply to Panera franchises, including those owned by a billionaire Newsom donor. The governor’s legal team later said Panera is not exempted from the law because its bread is not produced, or mixed, on-site.

Fong said the use of NDAs, first reported by KCRA, left many of those questions unanswered in the first place.

“Who asked for that carve-out? How did it transpire? This should not happen again,” Fong said in an interview with The Sacramento Bee. “If there’s legislation crafted that’s going to impact every single Californian, we need to ensure it’s transparent and NDAs are not used to shield important information.”

The Bakersfield Republican said that during his more than two decades of work on public policy at the state and federal levels, he had “never heard of the use of NDAS until now.”

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