California AI Employment Bills Target Automated Hiring and Surveillance

California lawmakers have sent three bills to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk that would significantly restrict how employers use artificial intelligence and automated systems to manage workers. The governor has until September 30 to sign or veto the measures, according to Inside Global Tech.

The legislation arrives as employers increasingly deploy AI tools for hiring, performance monitoring, and workforce management—often with minimal transparency about how these systems make consequential decisions about people's livelihoods.

The No Robo Bosses Act returns

SB 947, dubbed the "No Robo Bosses Act," would prohibit employers from using automated decision systems to infer workers' protected characteristics or predict whether employees might exercise legal rights. The bill defines these systems broadly as technologies that produce scores, classifications, or recommendations used to assist or replace human judgment in ways that materially affect people.

Under the measure, employers could not use automated systems alone to fire or discipline workers. Any such decision would require a human to corroborate the system's output with supporting evidence like work product, manager evaluations, or personnel files. Employers relying primarily on automated systems for termination or discipline would need to provide post-decision notices explaining employees' rights to access their data and contact a human for more information.

Violations would carry $500 civil penalties, with enforcement through civil action or by the Labor Commissioner. The law would take effect July 1, 2027.

Notably, Governor Newsom vetoed a previous version of this bill last year, arguing it imposed overly broad restrictions and that forthcoming California Privacy Protection Agency regulations would address automated decision systems.

Technology displacement disclosures

SB 951 would amend California's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act to require additional disclosures when mass layoffs result wholly or substantially from AI or automation. Affected employers would need to label notices with "This notice is for a technology displacement" and specify the number of workers displaced, which job functions will be automated, and what type of AI or automated technology caused the displacement.

The Employment Development Department would be required to publish summaries of these notices and quarterly statewide reports on technological displacement. This provision would become operative January 1, 2027.

Workplace surveillance restrictions

AB 1883 targets workplace surveillance tools, defined expansively to include any system collecting employee data through means other than direct human observation—encompassing video, audio, time-tracking, geolocation, and biometric monitoring.

The bill would ban employers from using these tools to recognize or infer workers' emotional states or collect neural data. Safety-related uses would be exempt, provided the tools don't use AI for the prohibited functions. Certain uses required by federal law or national security contracts would also be exempted.

Like SB 947, violations would carry up to $500 civil penalties with enforcement by the Labor Commissioner or through civil action. The law would take effect January 1, 2027.

Why it matters

These bills represent California's attempt to establish guardrails around workplace AI before widespread adoption creates entrenched practices that harm workers. For employers operating in California—or companies that serve them—the measures would require substantial changes to how automated systems are deployed, documented, and overseen. The disclosure requirements around AI-driven layoffs could also provide unprecedented visibility into how automation affects employment, potentially informing future policy at state and federal levels. Governor Newsom's decision will signal whether California prioritizes worker protections over concerns about regulatory burden on employers adopting new technologies.

Details were first reported by Inside Global Tech.