Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson announced Tuesday afternoon that the law banning collective bargaining in Utah will be put on hold and will not go into effect on the originally planned date.
Henderson posted a declaration on X, issuing a temporary stay of when HB267 will go into effect. The law’s original effective date was July 1.
The order says that, as of Tuesday, the Salt Lake County Clerk’s office has verified enough signatures for the referendum to be certified.
Under the temporary stay, the ban on public sector collective bargaining will stay paused until the lieutenant governor declares the referendum petition insufficient or the governor issues a proclamation putting the law into effect.
HB267 was passed by the state Legislature in Feburary and was one of the first bills signed by Gov. Spencer Cox. Shortly after the legislative session ended, the Protect Utah Workers coalition launched a signature-gathering effort to certify a referendum to repeal the law.
The coalition released a statement on Tuesday about Henderson’s temporary stay.
“The Protect Utah Workers Coalition is proud that the Lt. Governor ordered a stay preventing HB267 from going into effect. This deeply unpopular bill would have stripped public workers of our rights. We are one step closer to letting voters, not politicians, decide the future of collective bargaining in Utah,” the statement said.
The law prohibits public sector collective bargaining, which is when a union acts as the sole collective bargaining agent for public employees with their employers.
A referendum requires 140,748 verified signatures to make it on the ballot. As of Tuesday morning, the HB267 referendum has 245,513 signatures. The referendum is set to go on the ballot in Utah for the 2026 election.