California No Robo Bosses Act of 2026 (SB 947)

Properties

jurisdiction: US, California
level: state
domain: hiring
status: proposed
scope: Applies to California employers that use an automated decision system (ADS) to make or assist in making disciplinary or termination decisions about employees.
obligations: Labor Code Section 1522(b)(1): an employer shall not rely solely on an ADS when making a disciplinary or termination decision; a human reviewer must corroborate any ADS output used for such a decision. Employers must give affected employees written notice that an ADS was primarily used and inform them of their right to request a description of the data used against them; retaliation against employees asserting these rights is prohibited. Per Section 1526.7, this part of the bill becomes operative July 1, 2027.
effectiveDate: 2027-07-01
penalties: Per Section 1526.1(e): an employer who violates this part shall be subject to a civil penalty of $500 per violation, enforced by the Labor Commissioner; public prosecutors may bring civil enforcement actions; employees may seek injunctive relief, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney's fees in superior court.
appliesTo: California employers using automated decision systems for employee discipline or termination
officialUrl: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB947
notes: A 2026 reintroduction (by Sen. Jerry McNerney, introduced February 2, 2026) of the substantively similar SB 7, which Governor Newsom vetoed on October 13, 2025 citing overly broad restrictions; SB 947 was revised to address those concerns. Per leginfo's own bill-status history: Assembly amendments concurred in on 08/31/26 (Ayes 28, Noes 10) and the bill was enrolled 09/04/26; it has cleared the full Legislature but had not been signed or vetoed as of this check, so status remains 'proposed' per this dataset's convention for bills awaiting gubernatorial action. Effective date, section numbers (1522(b)(1), 1526.1(e), 1526.7), and penalty figure were independently re-confirmed against the leginfo bill-text page in a second, targeted fetch quoting the exact operative-date and penalty sentences with their section labels, rather than relying on a single general summary. Distinct from all currently tracked entities: neither SB 7 nor SB 947 appears in the baseline, and this is a narrower, discipline/termination-specific ADS regulation distinct from the broader ca-crc-ads-employment-regs (FEHA discrimination) and ca-cppa-admt (CCPA-based ADMT privacy regulation).

Properties

jurisdiction

US, California

level

state

domain

hiring

status

proposed

scope

Applies to California employers that use an automated decision system (ADS) to make or assist in making disciplinary or termination decisions about employees.

obligations

Labor Code Section 1522(b)(1): an employer shall not rely solely on an ADS when making a disciplinary or termination decision; a human reviewer must corroborate any ADS output used for such a decision. Employers must give affected employees written notice that an ADS was primarily used and inform them of their right to request a description of the data used against them; retaliation against employees asserting these rights is prohibited. Per Section 1526.7, this part of the bill becomes operative July 1, 2027.

effectiveDate

2027-07-01

penalties

Per Section 1526.1(e): an employer who violates this part shall be subject to a civil penalty of $500 per violation, enforced by the Labor Commissioner; public prosecutors may bring civil enforcement actions; employees may seek injunctive relief, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney's fees in superior court.

appliesTo

California employers using automated decision systems for employee discipline or termination

officialUrl

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB947

notes

A 2026 reintroduction (by Sen. Jerry McNerney, introduced February 2, 2026) of the substantively similar SB 7, which Governor Newsom vetoed on October 13, 2025 citing overly broad restrictions; SB 947 was revised to address those concerns. Per leginfo's own bill-status history: Assembly amendments concurred in on 08/31/26 (Ayes 28, Noes 10) and the bill was enrolled 09/04/26; it has cleared the full Legislature but had not been signed or vetoed as of this check, so status remains 'proposed' per this dataset's convention for bills awaiting gubernatorial action. Effective date, section numbers (1522(b)(1), 1526.1(e), 1526.7), and penalty figure were independently re-confirmed against the leginfo bill-text page in a second, targeted fetch quoting the exact operative-date and penalty sentences with their section labels, rather than relying on a single general summary. Distinct from all currently tracked entities: neither SB 7 nor SB 947 appears in the baseline, and this is a narrower, discipline/termination-specific ADS regulation distinct from the broader ca-crc-ads-employment-regs (FEHA discrimination) and ca-cppa-admt (CCPA-based ADMT privacy regulation).