California's No Robo Bosses Act: from July 2027, AI cannot fire or discipline on its own, $500 per violation

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed SB 947, the No Robo Bosses Act, which bars employers from relying solely on an automated decision system to discipline or fire a worker, CNBC reported. Newsom vetoed an earlier version last October. The bill's author, state Sen. Jerry McNerney, dropped the requirement to notify workers in advance whenever such a system is in use and removed language covering gig workers before reintroducing it, according to CNBC.

The rules start on July 1, 2027, according to the enrolled bill text. That date is the first thing an owner needs, and it was not in CNBC's report of the signing.

What the law actually requires

• No machine-only decisions. An employer may not rely solely on an automated decision system (ADS) when making a disciplinary or termination decision.
• A human has to check the work. If an employer relies "primarily" on ADS output, a person must corroborate the decision. The bill lists acceptable support: supervisor evaluations, personnel files, the employee's work product, peer reviews and witness interviews, which "may include relevant online customer reviews." If the output cannot be corroborated, or the reviewer finds it inaccurate, it cannot be used.
• Written notice afterward. A worker disciplined or fired primarily on ADS output must get a plain-language written notice at the time, and can request a description of their own data the system used.
• Penalties. A civil penalty of $500 per violation, enforcement by the Labor Commissioner or a public prosecutor, and a retaliation ban. Once a worker shows an ADS was used, the burden shifts to the employer to show it complied.
• Carve-outs. Workers under a collective bargaining agreement that explicitly waives the law are excluded. Spam filters, firewalls, antivirus software, calculators and databases are not ADS under the definition. Local ordinances that go further still apply.

The thing everyone got wrong: this is not only a big-tech rule

The coverage has focused on Meta, Amazon and Walmart. But the bill defines an employer as anyone who employs a person in California, with no minimum headcount in that definition. And an ADS is any process built on "machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence" that produces a score, classification or recommendation used to assist or replace a human decision. On that wording, many ordinary small-business tools could qualify:

• A trucking or delivery company that writes up drivers based on a telematics safety score.
• A restaurant whose scheduling app flags late clock-ins or no-shows and feeds write-ups.
• A retail or cleaning business that ranks staff with a productivity or customer-rating score and lets the bottom of the list go.

Using those tools stays legal. What changes is the paperwork when they drive a write-up or a firing. The one phrase that decides how much paperwork, "primarily relies," is not defined. Robert Singleton of the Chamber of Progress made that point in a letter urging a veto, CNBC reported.

Put a number on it

The $500 penalty is per violation. A company that let a scoring tool drive 20 disciplinary write-ups without human corroboration or the required notice could face $10,000 in penalties before any other relief a worker seeks. The cheaper path is a short corroboration note in the personnel file and a notice template, both of which can be built well before July 2027.

The exposure is wide. CheckThisBiz lists 862,842 independent businesses in California, the largest count of any state in our data, led by real estate agents, restaurants and auto repair shops.

What to actually do

Nothing is due today. Before the law takes effect, list every tool that produces a score or flag used in discipline, decide who reviews it, and keep a record of what that person checked. This is a summary of the bill text, not legal advice. Owners with a unionized workforce or a gig model should have an employment lawyer read the carve-outs.

Sources: CNBC; California Legislature, SB 947 enrolled text and Legislative Counsel's Digest; business counts from CheckThisBiz. The penalty example is a Chronicle illustration using the $500 figure in the bill.