Warden Watch

California: Automated Decision Systems in the Workplace Bill (SB 947)

CaliforniaLegislationNot in force

California Senate Bill 947 would regulate employer use of automated decision systems in disciplinary and termination decisions. If enacted, employers could not rely solely on an ADS when making those decisions. Where an employer primarily relies on an ADS output, a human must corroborate the decision using relevant information, and the output cannot be used if it cannot be corroborated or is found to be inaccurate, incomplete or misleading. The bill would also prohibit using ADS to violate employment or civil-rights law, infer an employee’s protected status, or predict and take adverse action against someone for exercising legal rights. Affected employees would receive a written post-use notice and could request a meaningful, objective description of their data used by the ADS. The bill would become operative on 1 July 2027 if enacted.

Impact

What this means for HR and vendors

HR and recruitment teams

If enacted, California employers would need controls preventing sole reliance on ADS outputs for disciplinary and termination decisions. Primarily ADS-driven decisions would require documented human corroboration, and employers could not use outputs that were uncorroborated, inaccurate, incomplete or misleading. Employers would also need post-use notification, employee data-description and anti-retaliation processes.

HR technology vendors

SB 947 does not currently impose direct obligations on ADS providers. However, employers may expect vendors to provide traceable outputs, accessible data descriptions, configuration records and functionality supporting human corroboration. The amended bill no longer requires disclosure of vendor names, product names or impact assessments.

Key obligations

What organizations need to do

Practical obligation briefings focused on what the requirement is, who it applies to, when it applies and what teams should consider doing.

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