Featured Image
SB 7 would bar California employers from relying primarily on AI systems, known as automated decision-making systems (ADS), to make hiring, promotion, discipline, or termination decisions without human oversight.
Press Release

McNerney Introduces the ‘No Robo Bosses Act’ to Ensure Human Oversight of AI in the Workplace

State Senator Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, on Thursday introduced the “No Robo Bosses Act” — groundbreaking legislation that would require human oversight of artificial intelligence systems in the workplace to help prevent abuses.

SB 7 would bar California employers from relying primarily on AI systems, known as automated decision-making systems (ADS), to make hiring, promotion, discipline, or termination decisions without human oversight. The legislation would also prohibit the use of ADS systems that use personal information of workers to “predict” what they’ll do in the future. 

“Businesses are increasingly using AI to boost efficiency and productivity in the workplace. But there are currently no safeguards to prevent machines from unjustly or illegally impacting workers’ livelihoods and working conditions,” Sen. McNerney said. “SB 7 does not prohibit ADS in the workplace, rather it establishes guardrails to ensure that California businesses are not operated by robo bosses — by putting a human in the loop. AI must remain a tool controlled by humans, not the other way around.”

SB 7 is sponsored by the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO. If signed into law, the No Robo Bosses Act would be the first such law in the nation.

“No worker should have to answer to a robot boss when they are fearful of getting injured on the job, or when they have to go to the bathroom or leave work for an emergency,” said Lorena Gonzalez, President of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, representing over 1,300 unions with 2.3 million union members. “When it comes to decisions that most impact our jobs, our safety and our families, we need human oversight.”

Employers around the globe are increasingly employing ADS — powered by artificial intelligence — to surveil, manage, and replace workers in the name of maximizing productivity and reducing costs. According to recent estimates, there are more than 550 so-called “bossware” products available to employers to help manage workplaces. And according to a recent national survey, 40 percent of workers experience some form of automated task management. 

There are already examples of robo bosses prioritizing efficiency and cost-savings over health and safety. In the health care industry, nurses who work through gig-nursing apps have had their wages and hours set by algorithms with no human oversight. There also examples of ADS errors that have resulted in people being mistakenly terminated from their job. Also, some ADS systems use so-called “predictive behavior” models that collect personal data, use that data to profile an employee, and potentially initiate adverse actions against a worker based on what the AI “predicts” the worker will do.

SB 7 establishes necessary safeguards of AI in the workplace by:

  • Requiring human oversight and independent verification for promotion, demotion, firing, and disciplinary decisions.
  • Barring ADS systems from obtaining or inferring a worker’s immigration status; veteran status; ancestral history; religious or political beliefs; health or reproductive status, history, or plan; emotional or psychological state; neural data; sexual or gender orientation’ disability; criminal record; credit history’ or any other statuses protected state law.
  • Prohibiting the use of ADS for predictive behavior analysis based on personal information collected on workers that results in adverse action against a worker for what the AI predicts the worker will do.
  • Creating a process for workers to appeal decisions made by ADS.

SB 7 is co-authored by Assemblymembers Sade Elhawary, D-South Los Angeles, and Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles.

In Congress, McNerney co-founded and co-chaired the Artificial Intelligence Caucus and authored the AI in Government Act.

 

Sen. Jerry McNerney is chair of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee and his 5th Senate District includes all of San Joaquin County and Alameda County’s Tri-Valley.