California employers will need a human in the loop before AI can fire a worker, under a new state law signed Sept. 30 that takes effect July 1, 2027.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 947, the "No Robo Bosses Act," making California the first state to restrict employers from relying solely on automated decision-making systems to discipline or terminate workers, according to Sen. Jerry McNerney's office. McNerney, a Democrat from Pleasanton and the bill's author, told ABC10 that nobody wants to be fired by a robot, a machine or an algorithm.
The law applies statewide, covering employers across industries including the Folsom area's technology corridor.
SB 947 defines an automated decision system broadly. It covers any computational process derived from machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics or artificial intelligence that produces a score, classification or recommendation used in human decision-making, according to the National Law Review.
Spam filters, firewalls and basic calculators are excluded.
What employers must do
When an employer primarily relies on an automated system for a discipline or termination decision, a human must review and corroborate that decision. Corroborating information can include managerial evaluations, personnel records, work product, peer reviews and witness interviews, the National Law Review reported. If the system's output cannot be corroborated, the employer cannot use it.
Employers must also give affected workers a written notice in plain language. That notice must explain the company's reliance on the automated system, confirm human review occurred, provide contact information for follow-up and describe the worker's right to request a description of the data used. Retaliation is prohibited.
The law also bars employers from using automated systems to infer a worker's protected status under the Fair Employment and Housing Act or to predict and punish workers for exercising legal rights.
Local opposition
State Sen. Roger Niello of Fair Oaks, whose District 6 covers communities near Folsom, voted against the measure.
"It is far too broad in its application," Niello told ABC10. He argued that protections for workers from discrimination or mistreatment already exist and warned that overregulation could let the U.S. fall behind China in tech, posing a national security threat.
Newsom himself vetoed a prior version of the bill in 2025, calling it "overly broad" and saying it "fails to directly address incidents of misuse." When McNerney reintroduced the bill in 2026, he dropped an advance-notice provision and removed language that would have covered gig workers, Quartz reported.
$500 per violation
Violations carry a $500 civil penalty per incident, according to CIO.com. The California labor commissioner, the state attorney general or local prosecutors can enforce the law. Workers can also request at least one year of data used by an automated system in any discipline or termination decision.
Collective bargaining agreements that include protections from algorithmic management may waive SB 947's provisions, the National Law Review noted.
What employers should do now
The National Law Review recommends that employers identify workplace tools that may qualify as automated decision systems before July 2027, document human review procedures, develop compliant notice templates and coordinate implementation with software vendors.
Newsom signed SB 947 alongside other AI workplace measures, including AB 1883, which bans AI surveillance tools that predict employees' emotional states or collect neural data, and AB 1331, which prohibits workplace surveillance in bathrooms.
