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<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2026-02-12</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
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<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Assembly Member Bryan</ns0:AuthorText>
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<ns0:Name>Bryan</ns0:Name>
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<ns0:Title>An act to add Part 5.8 (commencing with Section 1580) to Division 2 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.</ns0:Title>
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<ns0:Subject>Workplace surveillance tools.</ns0:Subject>
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<html:p>Existing law establishes the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement within the Department of Industrial Relations. Existing law authorizes the division, which is headed by the Labor Commissioner, to enforce the Labor Code and all labor laws of the state, the enforcement of which is not specifically vested in any other officer, board, or commission.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill would generally regulate the use of workplace surveillance tools and an employer’s use of worker data. The bill would prohibit an employer from using certain workplace surveillance tools, including a workplace surveillance tool that incorporates facial, gait, or emotion recognition technology, except as specified. The bill would also prohibit an employer from using a workplace surveillance tool to infer specified categories of information about a worker, including, among others, their veteran
status, ancestral history, religious beliefs, or disability status. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to enforce the bill’s provisions, would authorize an employee to bring a civil action for specified remedies for a violation of the bill’s provisions, and would authorize a public prosecutor to enforce the provisions. The bill would subject an employer who violates the bill’s provisions to a civil penalty of $500 for each violation. The bill would define various terms for purposes of its provisions.</html:p>
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<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
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<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
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Part 5.8 (commencing with Section 1580) is added to Division 2 of the
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, to read:
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<ns0:Num>5.8.</ns0:Num>
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<ns0:LawHeadingText>Workplace Surveillance Tools</ns0:LawHeadingText>
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<ns0:Num>1580.</ns0:Num>
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<html:p>As used in this part:</html:p>
<html:p>
(a)
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“Agency” means the Labor and Workforce Development Agency or any of its designees.
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(b)
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“Emotion recognition technology” means any technology that uses artificial intelligence to analyze a worker’s biometric data and physical state to infer, predict, or modify a worker’s internal emotional and behavioral state. Biometric data and physical state includes facial expressions, vocal intonation, gait, heart rate, and skin conductance.
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(c)
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(1)
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“Employer” means a person or governmental entity that directly or indirectly, or through an agent or any other person, employs or exercises control over the
wages, benefits, other compensation, hours, working conditions, access to work or job opportunities, or other terms or conditions of employment, of any worker, including all branches of state government, or the several counties, cities and counties, and municipalities thereof, or any other political subdivision of the state, or a school district, or any special district, or any authority, commission, or board or any other agency or instrumentality thereof.
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(2)
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“Employer” includes an employer’s labor contractor.
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(d)
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“Employment-related decision” means a decision by an employer that impacts wages, wage setting, benefits, compensation, hours, work schedule, performance evaluation, hiring, discipline, promotion, termination, job tasks, skill requirements, responsibilities, assignment of work, access to work and training opportunities, productivity requirements, workplace health and
safety, and any other terms or conditions of employment.
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(e)
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“Facial recognition technology” means any technology that analyzes a worker’s facial features to identify, verify, or track a worker in a still or video image.
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(f)
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“Gait recognition technology” means any technology that analyzes the shape and movement of a worker’s body when in motion to identify a worker.
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(g)
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“Neural data” means information that is generated by measuring the activity of a worker’s central or peripheral nervous system, and that is not inferred from nonneural information.
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(h)
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“Public prosecutor” has the same meaning as defined in Section 180.
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(i)
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“Worker” means a natural person, an employee of, or an independent
contractor providing service to, or through, a business or a state or local governmental entity in a workplace.
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(j)
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“Workplace surveillance tool” means any system, application, instrument, or device that collects or facilitates the collection of worker data, activities, communications, actions, biometrics, or behaviors, or those of the public that are also capable of passively surveilling workers, by means other than direct observation by a person, including, but not limited to, video or audio surveillance, continuous incremental time-tracking tools, geolocation, electromagnetic tracking, photoelectronic tracking, or that utilizes a photo-optical system or other means.
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<ns0:Num>1581.</ns0:Num>
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(a)
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(1)
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An employer shall not use a workplace surveillance tool that does any of the following:
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(A)
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Prevents compliance with or violates any federal, state, or local labor, occupational health and safety, employment, or civil rights laws or regulations.
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(B)
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Identifies, profiles, or infers information about workers engaging in activity protected by state or federal law.
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(C)
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Incorporates any of the following technologies:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(i)
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Emotion recognition technology.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(ii)
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Facial
recognition, unless it is used strictly to open a locked device or grant access to locked or secured areas.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(iii)
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Gait recognition technology.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(iv)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Neural data collection.
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(2)
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An employer shall not use a workplace surveillance tool to infer a worker’s protected status under Section 12940 of the Government Code.
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<ns0:LawSection id="id_91BDB731-6A2D-42F0-8A8C-8C612554701D">
<ns0:Num>1582.</ns0:Num>
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<html:p>
(a)
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The Labor Commissioner shall enforce this part, including investigating an alleged violation, and ordering appropriate temporary relief to mitigate a violation or maintain the status quo pending the completion of a full investigation or hearing through the procedures set forth in Section 98, 98.3, 98.7, 98.74, or 1197.1, including issuing a citation against an employer who violates this part and filing a civil action. If a citation is issued, the procedures for issuing, contesting, and enforcing judgments for citations and civil penalties issued by the Labor Commissioner shall be the same as those set out in Section 98.74 or 1197.1, as applicable.
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<html:p>
(b)
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This part may also be enforced by a public prosecutor pursuant to Chapter 8 (commencing
with Section 180) of Division 1.
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<html:p>
(c)
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Alternatively to subdivisions (a) and (b), a worker, or their exclusive representative, who has suffered a violation of this part may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction for damages caused by that adverse action, including punitive damages.
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(d)
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In any civil action brought pursuant to subdivision (a) or (b), the petitioner may seek appropriate temporary or preliminary injunctive relief, including punitive damages, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(e)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Except as provided in paragraph (2), in addition to any other remedy, an employer who violates this part may be subject to a penalty of up to five hundred dollars ($500) per employee for each violation.
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(2)
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An
employee, the Labor Commissioner, or a public prosecutor may recover a penalty under this part as a statutory penalty paid to the employee or a civil penalty, but not both, for the same violation.
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(f)
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An action brought pursuant to this section may be brought in the superior court in any county in which the violation in question is alleged to have occurred or in which the employer resides or transacts business.
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(g)
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This part does not preempt any city, county, or city and county ordinance that provides equal or greater protection to workers who are covered by this part.
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