1521.
The Legislature finds and declares the following:(a) The rapid adoption of worker data collection, electronic monitoring, and algorithmic management by employers in the workplace can cause harm to worker health, safety, dignity, and autonomy.
(b) All workers stand to be impacted, including employees, independent contractors, job applicants, and remote workers, and especially the low-wage workers, workers of color, women, and immigrants who are on the front lines of technology introduction.
(c) These data-driven workplace systems are often opaque, untested, and without any regulatory oversight.
(d) Workers and employers both stand to benefit from the establishment of clear rules of the road in the implementation and use of these new technologies in the workplace.
(e) Workers subject to employer data collection, electronic monitoring, and algorithmic management should have the right to know what personal data is being collected, when they are being monitored, what algorithms are being used, and how the employer will use their data.
(f) Workers should also have the right to access their data and to correct erroneous data.
(g) Employers should only use electronic monitoring and algorithms for narrow purposes that do not harm workers’ physical health, mental health, personal safety, or well-being.
(h) In particular, electronic monitoring and algorithms should not be used by employers to substitute for human decisionmaking about workers.
(i) Data collection systems and algorithms should be assessed for their potential harms to workers-- and identified harms should be mitigated -- before those systems are implemented in the workplace.
1522.
For purposes of this part, the following shall apply:(a) “Authorized representative” means any person or organization appointed by the worker to serve as an agent of the worker. Authorized representative shall not include a worker’s employer.
(b) “Automated Decision System (ADS)” or “algorithm” means a computational process, including one derived from machine learning, statistics, or other data processing or artificial intelligence techniques, that makes or assists an employment-related decision.
(c) “Automated Decision System (ADS) output” means any information, data, assumptions, predictions, scoring, recommendations, decisions,
or conclusions generated by an ADS.
(d) “Data” or “worker data” means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular worker, regardless of how the information is collected, inferred, or obtained. Data includes, but is not limited to, the following:
(1) Personal identity information, including the individual’s name, contact information, government-issued identification number, financial information, criminal background, or employment history.
(2) Biometric information, including the individual’s physiological, biological, or behavioral characteristics, including the individual’s deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), that can be used, singly or in combination with other data, to establish individual
identity.
(3) Health, medical, lifestyle, and wellness information, including the individual’s medical history, physical or mental condition, diet or physical activity patterns, heart rate, medical treatment or diagnosis by a health care professional, health insurance policy number, subscriber identification number, or other unique identifier used to identify the individual.
(4) Any data related to workplace activities, including the following:
(A) Human resources information, including the contents of an individual’s personnel file or performance evaluations.
(B) Work process information, such as productivity and efficiency data.
(C) Data that captures workplace communications and
interactions, including emails, texts, internal message boards, and customer interaction and ratings.
(D) Device usage and data, including calls placed or geolocation information.
(E) Audio-video data and other information collected from sensors, including movement tracking, thermal sensors, voiceprints, or faction, emotion, and gait recognition.
(F) Inputs of or outputs generated by an ADS that are linked to the individual.
(G) Data that is collected or generated on workers to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases, including COVID-19, or to comply with public health measures.
(5) Online information, including an individual’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, private social media
activity, or other digital sources or unique identifiers associated with a worker.
(e) “Department” means the Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
(f) “Electronic monitoring” means the collection of information concerning worker activities or communications by any means other than direct observation, including the use of a computer, telephone, wire, radio, camera, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, or photo-optical system.
(g) “Employer” means any person who 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. “Employer” includes any of the employer’s labor contractors.
(h) “Employment-related decision” means any decision made by the employer that affects wages, benefits, other compensation, hours, work schedule, performance evaluation, hiring, discipline, promotion, termination, job content, assignment of work, access to work opportunities, productivity requirements, workplace health and safety, and other terms or conditions of employment. For independent contractors or job applicants, this means the equivalent of these decisions based on their contract with or relationship to the employer.
(i) “Essential job functions” means the fundamental duties of a position, as revealed by objective evidence, including the amount of time workers spend performing each function, the consequences of not requiring individuals to perform the function, the terms of any applicable collective bargaining agreement, workers’ past and present work experiences and
performance in the position in question, and the employer’s reasonable, nondiscriminatory judgment as to which functions are essential. Past and current written job descriptions and the employer’s reasonable, nondiscriminatory judgment as to which functions are essential may be evidence as to which functions are essential for achieving the purposes of the job, but may not be the sole basis for this determination absent the objective evidence described in this subdivision.
(j) “Impact assessment” means the ongoing study and evaluation of a data collection system or an automated decision system and its impact on workers.
(k) “Labor agency” means the Labor and Workforce Development Agency or any of its designees.
(l) “Productivity system” is a management system that monitors, evaluates, or sets the amount and quality of
work done in a set time period by workers.
(m) “Third party” means a person who is not one of the following:
(1) The employer.
(2) A vendor or service provider to the employer.
(3) A labor or employee organization within the meaning of state or federal law.
(n) “Worker” means any natural person or their authorized representative acting as a job applicant to, an employee of, or an independent contractor providing service to, or through, a business or a state or local governmental entity in any workplace.
(o) “Worker Information System (WIS)” means a process, automated or not, that involves worker data, including the
collection, recording, organization, structuring, storage, alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, sharing, disclosure, dissemination, combination, restriction, erasure, or destruction of worker data. A WIS does not include an ADS.
(p) “Workplace” means a location within California at which or from which a worker performs work for an employer.
(q) “Vendor” means an entity engaged by an employer or an employer’s labor contractors, to provide software, technology, or a related service that is used to collect, store, analyze, or interpret worker data or worker information.