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Amended
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Assembly
July 02, 2026 |
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Amended
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Assembly
June 25, 2026 |
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Amended
IN
Assembly
June 16, 2026 |
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Amended
IN
Assembly
June 04, 2026 |
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Amended
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Senate
May 14, 2026 |
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Amended
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April 22, 2026 |
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Amended
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Senate
March 26, 2026 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 947
| Introduced by Senator McNerney (Coauthor: Senator Reyes) |
February 02, 2026 |
An act to add Part 5.5.5 (commencing with Section 1520) to Division 2 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 947, as amended, McNerney.
Employment: automated decision systems.
Existing law requires the Department of Technology to conduct, in coordination with other interagency bodies as it deems appropriate, a comprehensive inventory of all high-risk automated decision systems (ADS) that have been proposed for use, development, or procurement by, or are being used, developed, or procured by, any state agency.
Existing law establishes the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, which is composed of various departments responsible for protecting and promoting the rights and interests of workers in California, including the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, led by the Labor Commissioner, within the Department of Industrial Relations.
This bill would prohibit an employer, as defined, from using an ADS to perform certain functions and would limit the purposes for and way
in which an ADS may be used. The bill would authorize a worker to request, and require an employer to provide, a copy of the most recent 12 months of the worker’s own data primarily used by an ADS to make a disciplinary, termination, or deactivation decision, as specified. The bill would require an employer that primarily relied upon an ADS to make a disciplinary, termination, or deactivation decision to provide the affected worker with a written postuse notice, as specified.
This bill would prohibit an employer from discharging, threatening to discharge, demoting, suspending, or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against any worker for taking certain actions asserting their rights under the bill. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to enforce the bill’s provisions and also authorize a public prosecutor to bring a civil enforcement action, as specified. The bill would set forth specified types of relief that a plaintiff may seek and specified
penalties that an employer that violates these provisions is subject to, including a $500 civil penalty per violation.
This bill would also provide that an employer who complies with the requirements related to notice in this bill is not required to comply with any substantially similar provisions under any other state law, except as specified. The bill would not apply to parties covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement if the agreement contains specified information, including an explicit waiver of the bill’s provisions. The bill would exempt from its provisions the use of an automated decision system to the extent that its use is required by, or reasonably necessary to comply with, a federal statute, federal regulation, or binding federal contract relating to the development of aircraft for use in the national airspace or the development of products or services for national security, military, space, or defense purposes, as specified.
The bill would include a statement that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
This bill would declare that its provisions are severable.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Part 5.5.5 (commencing with Section 1520) is added to Division 2 of the Labor Code, to read:PART 5.5.5. Automated Decision Systems in the Workplace
CHAPTER 1. Definitions
1520.
For purposes of this part, the following shall apply:(a) “ADS output” means any information, data, assumptions, predictions, scoring, recommendations, decisions, or conclusions generated by an ADS.
(b) “Artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
(c) “Automated decision system” or “ADS” means any computational process derived from machine
learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence that issues simplified output, including a score, classification, or recommendation, that is used to assist or replace human discretionary decisionmaking and materially impacts natural persons. An automated decision system does not include a spam email filter, firewall, antivirus software, identity and access management tools, calculator, database, dataset, or other compilation of data.
(d) (1) “Employer” means any person who directly or indirectly, or through an agent or any other person, employs or exercises control over the wages, benefits, other compensation, hours, working conditions, access to work or job opportunities, or other terms or conditions of employment, of any worker. This shall include all branches of state government,
including all cities, counties, charter counties, municipalities, charter municipalities, cities and counties, special districts, transit districts, the University of California upon agreement by the regents, the California State University, community college districts, school districts, or any other governmental entity.
(2) “Employer” includes a labor contractor of a person defined as an employer under paragraph (1).
(e) “Employment-related decision” means any decision by an employer that materially impacts a worker’s wages, benefits, compensation, work hours, work schedule, performance evaluation, hiring, discipline, promotion, termination, job tasks, skill requirements, work responsibilities, assignment of work, access to work and training opportunities, productivity
requirements, or workplace health and safety.
(f) “Federal government” shall have the same meaning as set forth in Section 52008 of the Government Code.
(g) “Predictive behavior analysis” means any system that predicts a worker’s behavior, beliefs, or intentions.
(h) “Worker” means any natural person who is an employee of, or an independent contractor providing service to, or through, a business or a state or local governmental entity in any workplace.
(i) “Worker data” means any information that identifies, relates to, or describes a worker, regardless of how the information is collected, inferred, or obtained.
CHAPTER 2. Employer Requirements
1522.
(a) An employer shall not use an ADS to do any of the following:(1) Prevent compliance with or violate any federal, state, or local labor, occupational health and safety, employment, or civil rights laws or regulations.
(2) Infer a worker’s protected status under Section 12940 of the Government Code.
(3) Conduct predictive behavior analysis on a worker with the intention of using the analysis to make an employment-related decision.
(4) Predict or
and take adverse action against a worker for exercising their legal rights, including, but not limited to, rights guaranteed by state and federal employment and labor law.
(b) (1) An employer shall not rely solely on an ADS when making a disciplinary, termination, or deactivation decision.
(2) If an employer primarily relies upon an ADS output to make a disciplinary, termination, or deactivation decision, the employer shall direct a human reviewer to conduct an independent investigation and compile corroborating or supporting information for the decision. For purposes of this paragraph, “corroborating or supporting information” may include, but is not limited to, any of the following:
(A) Supervisory or managerial evaluations.
(B) Personnel files.
(C) Work product of workers.
(D) Peer reviews.
(E) Witness interviews, that may include relevant online customer reviews.
(c) If an employer cannot corroborate the ADS output, or the human reviewer has concluded that the ADS output is inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading, the employer shall not use the ADS output to discipline, terminate, or deactivate a worker.
(d) A worker shall have the right to request, and an
employer shall provide, a copy of the most recent 12 months of the worker’s own data primarily used by an ADS to make a disciplinary, termination, or deactivation decision. A worker is limited to one request every 12 months for a copy of their own data used by an ADS to make a disciplinary, termination, or deactivation decision.
(e) For purposes of safeguarding the privacy rights of consumers, workers, and individuals, when an employer is required to provide worker data pursuant to this part, that worker data shall be provided in a manner that anonymizes the customer’s, other worker’s, or individual’s personal information.
CHAPTER 3. Automated Decision System Postuse Notice
1524.
(a) An employer that primarily relied upon an ADS to make a disciplinary, termination, or deactivation decision shall provide the affected worker with a written postuse notice at the time the employer informs the worker of the decision. The notice shall comply with all of the following:(1) It shall be written in plain language as a separate, stand-alone communication.
(2) It shall be in the language in which routine communications and other information are provided to workers.
(3) It shall be provided via a simple and easy-to-use method, including
an email, hyperlink, or other written format.
(b) The postuse notice shall contain all of the following information:
(1) That the employer primarily relied upon an ADS to make a disciplinary, termination, or deactivation decision with respect to the worker.
(2) That a human reviewer conducted an independent investigation and compiled evidence to corroborate the ADS output.
(3) Contact information for a human that the worker may contact for more information about the decision and the worker’s right to access a copy of their own data and corroborating evidence that was used in the decision.
(4) That the employer is prohibited from retaliating against the worker for exercising their rights under this part.
(c) When responding to a data access request pursuant to this section, an employer shall provide to the worker a written, plain language document using a simple and easy-to-use method that is accessible away from the workplace containing all of the following:
(1) The specific decision for which the employer used the ADS.
(2) The specific worker data that the ADS used, and the specific ADS output produced by the ADS.
(3) Any additional corroborating or supporting information used in addition to the ADS output in making
the decision.
(4) The name of the vendor or entity that created the ADS and the product name of the ADS.
(5) A copy of any completed impact assessments regarding the ADS in question.
CHAPTER 4. Enforcement
1526.
An employer shall not discharge, threaten to discharge, demote, suspend, or in any manner discriminate or retaliate against any worker for using or attempting to use their rights under this part, filing a complaint with the Labor Commissioner, alleging a violation of this part, cooperating in an investigation or prosecution of an alleged violation of this part, or any action taken by the worker to invoke or assist in any manner the enforcement of this part, or for exercising or attempting to exercise any right protected under this part.1526.1.
(a) The Labor Commissioner shall enforce this part, including investigating an alleged violation, and ordering appropriate temporary relief to mitigate a violation or maintain the status quo pending the completion of a full investigation or hearing through the procedures set forth in Section 98.3, 98.7, 98.74, or 1197.1, including issuing a citation against an employer who violates this part and filing a civil action. If a citation is issued, the procedures for issuing, contesting, and enforcing judgments for citations and civil penalties issued by the Labor Commissioner shall be the same as those set forth in Section 98.74 or 1197.1, as applicable.(b) This part may
also be enforced by a public prosecutor pursuant to Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 180) of Division 1.
(c) In any civil action brought pursuant to subdivision (a) or (b) in superior court in any county wherein the violation in question is alleged to have occurred, or wherein the person resides or transacts business, the petitioner may seek appropriate temporary or preliminary injunctive relief, including punitive damages, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs as part of the costs of any such action for damages.
(d) An employer who violates this part shall be subject to a civil penalty of five hundred dollars ($500) per violation.
1526.2.
This part does not preempt any city, county, or city and county ordinance that provides equal or greater protection to workers who are covered by this part.1526.3.
Except as set forth in Section 1526.4, an employer who complies with the requirements related to notice under this part is not required to comply with any substantially similar notice provisions related to automated decision systems used for employment-related decisions required under any other state law.1526.4.
Notwithstanding Section 1526.3, an employer that is a business subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (Title 1.81.5 (commencing with Section 1798.100) of Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code) is subject to any privacy-related automated decisionmaking technology regulation duly adopted by the California Privacy Protection Agency pursuant to Section 1798.185 and subdivision (b) of Section 1798.199.40 of the Civil Code.1526.5.
The provisions of this part shall not apply to parties covered by a collective bargaining agreement if the agreement explicitly waives this part in clear and unambiguous terms, expressly provides for the wages or earning, working conditions, and other terms and conditions of work, and provides protection from algorithmic management.1526.6.
(a) This part shall not apply to the use of an automated decision system to the extent that use of the system is required by, or reasonably necessary to comply with, a federal statute, federal regulation, or binding federal contract relating to either of the following:(1) The development of aircraft for use in the national airspace.
(2) The development of products or services for national security, military, space, or defense purposes.
(b) Subdivision (a) applies only to the operations covered by a federal statute, federal regulation, or
binding federal contract outlined in paragraph (1) or (2) of that subdivision.