AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 9, 2026

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 16, 2026

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

97

Introduced by Assembly Member Ward

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Addis, Ahrens, Arambula, Boerner, Connolly, Garcia, Mark González, Haney, Harabedian, Hart, Jackson, Kalra, Lee, Lowenthal, Ortega, Quirk-Silva, Celeste Rodriguez, Rogers, Schiavo, Sharp-Collins, and Zbur)

February 17, 2026

An act to add Part 5.9 (commencing with Section 1570) to Division 2 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.

Vote: majority   Appropriation: no   Fiscal committee: yes   Local program: no

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

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.

This bill would require an employer, or a vendor acting on behalf of an employer, to collect and process worker data only as strictly necessary to administer the employment relationship and fulfill specific obligations. The bill would prohibit an employer or vendor from using a worker data to train or deploy artificial intelligence to, among other things, replicate, automate, or replace a worker’s job, and to prohibit an employer or vendor from deploying artificial intelligence trained with worker data prohibit an employer from using a worker’s personal information, as defined, to train an artificial intelligence system to replicate, automate, or replace a worker’s job. The bill job, and would prohibit an employer from selling, disclosing, or otherwise providing access to worker data to a third party to train an artificial intelligence system for the purposes of replicating, automating, or replacing a worker’s personal information to a third party for the purpose of training an artificial intelligence system to replicate, automate, or replace a worker’s job. The bill would prohibit a vendor providing services to an employer under a contract from providing access to the personal information of an employer’s worker data to a third party or using an the personal information of an employer’s worker data to train artificial intelligence, as specified. The bill would require a contract between an employer and vendor to include specific terms, including, among others, a provision that the employer and vendor be jointly liable for a violation of these prohibitions. a requirement that the vendor implement and maintain reasonable security procedures to protect the worker’s personal information from, among other things, unauthorized or illegal access. The bill would define terms for these provisions, including “employer” and “worker data.” “personal information.”

The bill would require the Labor Commissioner and authorize a public prosecutor to enforce these provisions. The bill would authorize a worker, or their exclusive representative, who suffered a violation of these provisions to bring a civil action for damages, injunctive relief, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees and costs. The bill would establish a statutory penalty for a violation of these provisions of up to $500 per employee for each violation.

The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Part 5.9 (commencing with Section 1570) is added to Division 2 of the Labor Code, to read:

Part 5.9. Worker Data Protection

1570.

As used in this part:

(a) “Artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.

(b) (1) “Employer” means a person, business, private entity, state, city, county, charter county, city and county, municipality, charter municipality, special district, transit district, the University of California, the California State University, community college district, school district, or any other state or local 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.

(2) “Employer” includes an employer’s labor contractor.

(d) “Public prosecutor” has the same meaning as defined in Section 180.

(e) “Worker” means a natural person who is an employee of, or an independent contractor providing service to or through, an employer.

1571.

(a) An employer, or vendor acting on behalf of an employer, shall not deploy artificial intelligence trained with worker data employer shall not use a worker’s personal information to train an artificial intelligence system to replicate, automate, or replace a worker’s job.

(b) An employer shall not sell, disclose, license, transmit, make available, expose, process, monetize, or otherwise provide access to worker data a worker’s personal information to a third party, including through automated means, embedded technologies, tracking technologies, networked data collection, or transmission mechanisms, to train an artificial intelligence system for the purposes of replicating, automating, or replacing for the purpose of training an artificial intelligence system to replicate, automate, or replace a worker’s job.

(c) A vendor providing services to an employer under a contract shall not do any of the following:

(1) Transfer, sell, disclose, license, transmit, make available, expose, process, monetize, or otherwise provide access to the personal information of an employer’s worker data to a third party, including through automated means, embedded technologies, tracking technologies, or networked data collection or transmission mechanisms to train for the purpose of training an artificial intelligence system for the purposes of replicating, automating, or replacing to replicate, automate, or replace a worker’s job.

(2) Use the personal information of an employer’s worker data to train any of the vendor’s artificial intelligence products, sold or leased to other customers, for the purpose of replicating, automating, or replacing a worker’s job.

(d) A contract between an employer and a vendor for services involving the access or capture of worker data a worker’s personal information on the employer’s behalf shall include both of the following terms:

(1) A a requirement that the vendor must implement and maintain reasonable security procedures to protect the worker data worker’s personal information from unauthorized or illegal access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.

1572.

(a) 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 or 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 forth in Section 98.74 or 1197.1, as applicable.

(b) This part may also alternatively be enforced by a public prosecutor pursuant to Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 180) of Division 1.

(c) Alternatively to subdivision (a) or (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. violation.

(d) In any civil action brought pursuant to subdivision (a), (b), or (c), the petitioner may seek appropriate temporary or preliminary injunctive relief, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.

(e) (1) 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 worker for each violation.

(2) A worker, the Labor Commissioner, or a public prosecutor may recover a penalty under this part as a statutory penalty paid to the worker or a civil penalty, but not both, for the same violation.

(f) 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. resides.

(g) 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.

SEC. 2.

The Legislature finds and declares that Section 1 of this act, adding Part 5.9 (commencing with Section 1570) to Division 2 of the Labor Code, addresses a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair as that term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution. Therefore, Section 1 of this act applies to all cities, including charter cities.