Under a new California law, an algorithm will no longer be able to fire a worker on its own. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the measure on Wednesday, 30 September, the last day he had to act on bills from the legislative session.
The law, SB 947, is known as the No Robo Bosses Act.
It was one of 13 AI bills he signed that day, according to The Next Web. He also vetoed several others.
What the workplace laws do
According to KQED,
SB 947 says employers cannot rely solely on an automated decision system to discipline or fire workers. A human has to corroborate the decision, and workers have to be told.
It takes effect on 1 July 2027.
A second bill, SB 951, covers mass layoffs. KQED reports that
employers must give notice when AI causes a mass layoff, relocation or termination.
It also directs the state employment agency to study AI’s effect on hiring and the workforce.
Another, AB 1331, bans workplace surveillance tools in bathrooms, KQED reported.
The signing followed a push from organised labour. CalMatters reported that union leaders had pressed Newsom to approve a package of AI bills and had tied the issue to their support for any future presidential bid. Newsom signed only some of them.
Lorena Gonzalez, who leads the California Federation of Labor Unions, said the governor had shown how to put human oversight over AI at work, according to The Next Web. UPI noted that Newsom had vetoed similar legislation a year earlier, even though it passed both houses.
Health care and chatbots
Healthcare IT News reported that Newsom signed three bills on AI in health care.
The laws restrict AI in clinical care and aim to address algorithmic bias in health uses.
One of them, AB 1609,
prohibits large enterprises from representing a customer service chatbot as a human.
The report says it exempts certain hospital and healthcare facility communications.
The vetoes
Not everything made it through.
Newsom vetoed two bills: one to increase protections for healthcare workers using AI, and another to limit AI in mental health care.
He also rejected a smart glasses privacy bill, according to The Next Web. KQED lists a veto of AB 2656, which would have required notice to public employees when AI is used on them. The listing is cut off in the portion of the report available to us, so the bill’s full scope is not clear here.
The federal backdrop
The signings came as Congress has not passed comprehensive federal AI rules. KQED noted that the governor used an hourlong session with reporters on Wednesday to criticise what it called Trump’s industry-friendly inaction. The Next Web adds that he had called what he heard at a Trump AI lunch the day before “bullsht”. We could not confirm that wording on the page we read beyond the headline summary, so treat the characterisation as The Next Web’s.
Newsom’s term ends in January, so these were among his last decisions on AI legislation as governor. Industry groups have been pressing Congress for a single federal framework that would override state laws, according to a regulatory roundup from Cubbbix. That fight could affect how long California’s rules stay as written. We have no confirmation from Congress of any specific bill moving.
For employers, the practical effect is a deadline. The firing and discipline rules start in July 2027, which leaves companies using automated scoring or monitoring tools less than a year to add a human review step and a worker notice.