California signs AI-at-work laws: no firing or discipline by AI alone, disclosure when AI causes mass layoffs, limits on workplace surveillance

California signs AI-at-work laws: no firing or discipline by AI alone, disclosure when AI causes mass layoffs, limits on workplace surveillance

1 October 2026 — California's governor, Gavin Newsom, signed a set of artificial-intelligence bills on 30 September 2026. Four of them change what employers in California may do with AI and automated tools at work. The governor's office calls them "first-in-the-nation" worker protections.

Not yet independently verified. This rests on the governor’s announcement, which summarises the laws in a sentence each; we have not read the bill texts, and the announcement does not state when each law takes effect. California laws usually take effect on 1 January of the following year unless they say otherwise; we will add the dates from the chaptered bills. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

The four workplace laws

The governor's office lists them as:

• SB 947 (Employment: automated decision systems). "Ensuring real people review automated employment actions by prohibiting employers from only relying on AI when making a disciplinary action or termination decision."
• SB 951 (Employment: technological displacement: notice). "Requiring employers to provide if a mass layoff, relocation, or termination is caused by an AI system." This extends California's layoff-notice regime to say when AI is the cause.
• AB 1331 (Workplace surveillance).
• AB 1883 (Workplace surveillance tools). Among the protections, the announcement names a ban on employers using workplace surveillance tools in a bathroom in the workplace.

The same day the governor signed laws on AI in healthcare decisions, AI transparency and watermarks, digital replicas and deepfakes, and lawyers' use of AI, which this item does not cover.

Who is affected

Any employer with staff in California, wherever it is based. In practice:

• HR teams using AI or scoring tools in performance management, scheduling, discipline or dismissal decisions;
• employers planning layoffs, who already file state WARN notices and will now have to say whether an AI system caused the cuts;
• vendors of HR, workforce-management and employee-monitoring software selling into California, whose customers will ask for evidence of human review and for configurable monitoring limits.

What to do

• Map where AI touches employment decisions: performance ratings, attendance and productivity flags, scheduling, discipline and termination. For each, make sure a person reviews the decision and that the review is recorded.
• Review monitoring tools against the new surveillance limits, starting with anything that captures audio, video or location in the workplace.
• Update layoff playbooks so that WARN notices can state whether an AI system caused the action.
• Ask your HR software vendors how their products support human review and documentation, and what they are changing for California.
• Read the chaptered bills for the effective dates and exact obligations before changing policy; take legal advice.

Sources

• Office of Governor Gavin Newsom: California’s nation-leading AI framework just got stronger — Governor Newsom signs more first-in-the-nation worker protections and more — 30 September 2026