Overview and commentary of the California Workplace Technology Accountability Act

Abstract

Technological innovation and the resulting automation are increasingly being applied in the workplace, which is a high-risk context where decisions can majorly impact a worker’s life. Consequently, a number of ethical concerns with automated employment decision systems have been raised, with California proposing the Workplace Technology Accountability Act to limit the use of electronic monitoring systems and automated decision systems to specific times of day, activities and locations that must be proven as essential job functions. Workers would also be given the right to know, review and correct data held about them by their employer. In this article, we summarise and discuss the key points of the legislation before providing a commentary, where we identify four key themes: (i) how boundaries can contribute to a healthy work-life balance and protect the privacy of workers; (ii) how the requirement for impact assessments reflects the wider movement towards algorithmic assurance; (iii) the necessary and potentially problematic requirement to share notices and impact assessment reports with the Labor Agency; and (iv) how the Act might conflict with existing laws. Our intended readership is those interested in the regulation of automated employment decision tools, algorithmic assurance, and the potential impact of the proposed legislation.