SB 951: Employment: technological displacement: notice.

Session Year: 2025-2026
House: Senate
Latest Version Date: 2026-07-02

Current Status:

In Progress

(2026-07-02: From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 2.) (July 1).)

Introduced

In Committee

First Chamber

In Committee

Second Chamber

Enacted

Version:

Existing law establishes the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, which is composed of various departments responsible for protecting and promoting the rights and interests of workers in California, including the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, led by the Labor Commissioner (commissioner), within the Department of Industrial Relations. Existing law establishes the Employment Development Department (EDD), which is administered by the Director of Employment Development. Under existing law, the Director of Employment Development is vested with specified duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction related to job creation activity functions, among other things.

Existing law, the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act (Cal/WARN Act), prohibits an employer from ordering a mass layoff, relocation, or termination at a covered establishment unless, 60 days before the order takes effect, the employer gives written notice of the order to the employees affected by the order and to the EDD and certain local officials. Existing law makes an employer who fails to give specified notice regarding a mass layoff, relocation, or termination subject to a civil penalty of not more than $500 for each day of the employers violation.

This bill would revise the Cal/WARN Act to also require an employer giving notice of a mass layoff, relocation, or termination caused in whole or in substantial part by an artificial intelligence (AI) system or other automated technology replacing or automating employment positions to include certain information in the notice, including the job functions performed by workers that will be automated by AI.

The bill would additionally require an employer to provide the EDD with a written technology hiring disruption notice that contains all of specified information about the employers use of AI or other automation when that employer executes a technological cessation in hiring, as defined. The bill would require the EDD to post summaries of notices received pursuant to these provisions on its internet website as part of the existing notice requirements of the Cal/WARN Act, compile quarterly summaries regarding worker displacement due to AI and automation with the report including a link to the Cal/WARN Act notice report internet website, and submit the report to specified legislative committees. The bill would make an employer who fails to give a written technology hiring disruption notice when it executes a technological cessation in hiring liable for a civil penalty of not more than $500 for each day of the employers violation. The bill would authorize the Labor Commissioner to enforce these notice requirements and would make various related, conforming changes to the Cal/WARN Act.

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 and counties, including charter cities and charter counties.

This bill would establish the California Worker Technological Displacement Act, which would require an employer, as defined, to provide at least a 60-day advanced written notice before any technological displacement affecting workers, as described. The bill would require an employer to provide that notice to affected workers, the EDD, and specified local entities. The bill would also require an employer to provide a written technology hiring disruption notice to the EDD when it executes a technological cessation in hiring caused in whole by the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) or other automating technology. The bill would impose various reporting requirements on the EDD.For employers with more than 100 workers, this bill would entitle workers affected by technological displacement to a right of first bid on other positions with the employer, except as specified. The bill would prohibit an employer, during the 60-day period from when notice is provided to the worker, from discharging a worker affected by a technological displacement without reasonable and substantiated cause.This bill would also require a local educational agency that provides layoff notices for classified and certificated staff or a community college district that provides layoff notices for academic and classified employees to provide the EDD with a written technology displacement or cessation in hiring notice when it executes a technological displacement or a technological cessation in hiring caused in whole by the adoption of AI or other automating technology, as specified.This bill would make an employer that fails to give notice before ordering a technological displacement subject to certain penalties, including a $500 civil penalty for each day of the employers violation, except as provided.This bill would establish the Technological Displacement Act Fund, require all civil penalties recovered by the commissioner to be deposited in the fund, and make all moneys in the fund available to the commissioner upon appropriation. The bill would also authorize the commissioner and the EDD to adopt rules and regulations to effectuate these provisions. The bill would make its provisions severable.

Discussed in Hearing