California's No Robo Bosses Act Signed Into Law, Barring AI-Only Worker Discipline

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 947, known as the No Robo Bosses Act, into law on September 30, prohibiting employers in the state from relying solely or primarily on artificial intelligence systems to fire or discipline workers.

The law bars businesses from exclusively using "automated decision-making systems" in matters of employee termination and discipline. It also restricts AI's role as a "principal tool" in those decisions, requiring that a human reviewer corroborate any primarily AI-driven outcome using supplementary information such as managerial evaluations, peer reviews, and personnel files.

Under the new requirements, affected employees must receive written notice when AI was "primarily used" in a termination or disciplinary action, a description of the employee data the system relied upon, and a designated human contact who can explain the decision further.

"No worker should ever be fired or disciplined by a machine, AI or not. Artificial intelligence systems have the potential to boost productivity, but they've also made errors and misjudgments and exhibited bias," California State Senator Jerry McNerney, the bill's author, told CNBC. "AI must remain a tool controlled by humans, not the other way around."

McNerney, a Democrat, first introduced the act in 2025 following organized labor's push to erect guardrails around management's use of AI in adverse employment decisions. The California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO served as the bill's lead sponsor.

"When working people organize, we get results," said Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, in a statement after Newsom signed the bill. "Today, California's workers and our unions have changed the national narrative on how Americans can fight back and win against AI taking over our jobs and workplaces."

The signing marks a reversal for Newsom, who vetoed an earlier version of the bill in October 2025 despite it clearing both chambers of the state legislature with overwhelming majority support. At the time, he objected to a provision that would have required businesses to alert workers in advance whenever an AI system capable of affecting work conditions was in use, calling those requirements "unfocused."

Upon reintroducing the bill in February, McNerney removed the pre-notification requirement and stripped language that would have extended protections to gig workers — provisions that had drawn fierce opposition from rideshare companies including Uber and Lyft.

Business groups still mounted resistance ahead of the bill's enactment. Robert Singleton, senior director of policy and public affairs for the Chamber of Progress, wrote in a letter to Newsom that the bill's obligations "apply when an employer 'primarily relies' on an automated decision system, but that critical term is never defined," leaving employers without an objective standard for compliance.

The law arrives amid broader national concern over algorithmic management. A survey from the OECD published late last year found that 90% of U.S. managers said their firms had adopted at least one tool to "instruct, monitor or evaluate workers" — the highest adoption rate of any country surveyed. Meta is separately facing a lawsuit, filed in July, alleging its AI-assisted systems were used to rank and select workers for layoffs in ways that disproportionately affected employees who had taken medical or family leave; Meta has denied the allegations.

Newsom has moved on multiple AI fronts in recent weeks, signing a broader executive order addressing existential risks posed by advanced AI models and a separate measure establishing a state framework for independent evaluation and auditing of AI systems.

With the No Robo Bosses Act now on the books, attention will turn to enforcement mechanics and how regulators define the law's key thresholds — particularly what constitutes "primarily" relying on AI — questions that business groups say remain unresolved and that will likely shape the law's practical reach in the months ahead.