AB1331 - Workplace surveillance.

Amended IN Senate August 28, 2026 Amended IN Senate August 21, 2026 Amended IN Senate September 04, 2025 Amended IN Senate August 29, 2025 Amended IN Senate July 17, 2025 Amended IN Senate June 19, 2025 Amended IN Assembly May 23, 2025 Amended IN Assembly April 28, 2025 Amended IN Assembly April 10, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 1331 Introduced by Assembly Member Elhawary (Coauthors: Assembly Members Bryan, Mark González, and Ward) (Coauthors: Senators Becker, Cortese, and McNerney) February 21, 2025 An act to add Part 5.8 (commencing with Section 1560) to Division 2 of the Labor Code, relating to employment. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1331, as amended, Elhawary. Workplace surveillance. 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 board, or commission. This bill would limit the use of workplace surveillance tools, as defined, by employers, including by prohibiting an employer from monitoring or surveilling employees in a bathroom located in the workplace, except as specified. The bill would provide an employee with the right to leave behind workplace surveillance tools that are on their person or in their possession when entering a bathroom, except as specified. This bill would authorize the Labor Commissioner commissioner to enforce the bill’s provisions, as prescribed, and would authorize a public prosecutor to bring specified enforcement actions. The bill would subject an employer who violates the bill to a civil penalty of up to $500 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. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Part 5.8 (commencing with Section 1560) is added to Division 2 of the Labor Code, to read: PART 5.8. Workplace Surveillance of Employees 1560. 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. (a) (b) “Employ” means to engage, suffer, or permit to work. (b) (c) “Employee” means any person employed by an employer. (c) (d) (1) “Employer” means a person who directly or indirectly, or through an agent or any other person, employs or exercises control over the wages, hours, or working conditions of any person. “Employer” includes all branches of state government, or the several cities, counties, cities and counties, and municipalities thereof, or any other political subdivision of the state, or a school district, or any special district, or any authority, commission, or board or any other agency or instrumentality thereof. (2) “Employer” includes a labor contractor of a person defined as an employer under paragraph (1) and any entity or individual that contracts with the labor contractor for labor or services, including, but not limited to, a “client employer” under Section 2810.3 or an individual or business entity that contracts for property services under Section 238.5. (3) “Employer” includes a farm labor contractor, as defined in Section 1682, or foreign labor contractor, as defined in Section 9998.1 of the Business and Professions Code. (d) (e) “Public prosecutor” has the same meaning as defined in Section 180. (e) (f) “Workplace surveillance tool” means a system, application, instrument, or device that collects or facilitates the collection of employee data, activities, communications, actions, biometrics, or behaviors by means other than direct observation by a person, including, but not limited to, video or audio surveillance, continuous incremental time-tracking tools, geolocation, electromagnetic tracking, photoelectronic tracking, a photo-optical system, or other means. “Workplace surveillance tool” does not include smoke or carbon monoxide detectors or weapon detection systems that automatically screen a person’s body. 1561. (a) Unless directed by a court order, an employer shall not use a workplace surveillance tool to monitor or surveil employees in a bathroom located in the workplace. (b) (1) An employee shall have the right to leave behind workplace surveillance tools that are on their person or in their possession when entering a bathroom. (2) Paragraph (1) does not apply if an employee is required to remain available during meal or rest periods pursuant to federal law or existing state law. (3) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), an employer may check workplace surveillance tools for the one-time entry and exit of bathrooms in the workplace. (c) An employer is not in violation of this section in any either of the following circumstances: (1) An employee brings a workplace surveillance tool into a bathroom in the workplace because it is required to access a locked or secured area. (2) (1) An employee voluntarily chooses to bring a workplace surveillance tool into a bathroom in the workplace. (3) (2) An employee brings a workplace surveillance tool, including a badge or personal alarm system, into a bathroom in the workplace because the employer has a policy that requires that workplace surveillance tool to be in the employee’s possession while on work premises for identification or safety purposes, purposes or if the tool is required to access a locked or secured bathroom, if the workplace surveillance tool meets both of the following conditions: (A) Does not detect or record audio or video. (B) Is not artificial intelligence enabled. Does not have physically embedded or attached artificial intelligence. 1563. (a) The Labor Commissioner may 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 98.3, 98.7, 98.74, or 1197.1, including issuing a citation against an employer who violates this part and 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 out in Section 98.74 or 1197.1, as applicable. (b) This part may also be enforced by a public prosecutor pursuant to Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 180) of Division 1. (c) In any civil action brought pursuant to subdivision (a) or (b) the petitioner may seek appropriate temporary or preliminary injunctive relief, including punitive damages, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. (d) 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) for each violation. (e) 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 transacts business. 1564. (a) This part is not intended to limit any other state or local law, including, but not limited to, Section 435, that provides equal or greater protection to employees. (b) The provisions of this part are severable. If any provision of this part or its application is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application. (c) This part does not prohibit any employer from using workplace surveillance tools as required by federal law or law, existing state law. law, federal regulation, or existing state regulation. (d) This part does not authorize any employer to use workplace surveillance tools as prohibited by federal law or existing state law. 1565. (a) This part does not prohibit the use of a workplace surveillance tool by an employer relating to either of the following: (1) The development of aircraft for use in the national airspace. (2) The development of products or services for national security, military, space, or defense purposes. (b) The exemption in this section applies only to the operations covered by a federal statute, federal regulation, or binding federal contract where the use of a workplace surveillance tool is reasonably necessary to comply with the federal statute, the federal regulation, or the binding federal contract. 1566. (a) This part does not apply to a law enforcement agency that includes any employee who is a peace officer under any of the following when it acts as a law enforcement agency or as the employer of its own employees: (1) Subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 830.1 of the Penal Code. (2) Subdivision (a), (b), (c), (d), or (g) of Section 830.2 of the Penal Code. (3) Section 830.31 of the Penal Code. (4) Section 830.33 of the Penal Code. (5) Section 830.34 of the Penal Code. (6) Subdivision (c) of Section 830.35 of the Penal Code. (7) Subdivision (a), (b), or (d) of Section 830.37 of the Penal Code. (8) Section 830.38 of the Penal Code. (9) Subdivision (a) of Section 830.5 of the Penal Code. (10) Section 830.7 of the Penal Code. (11) Section 830.75 of the Penal Code. (12) Section 830.15 of the Penal Code. (b) For purposes of this section, a law enforcement agency is not to be deemed the employer of any employees who are not directly employed by the law enforcement agency. SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares that Section 1 of this act adding Part 5.8 (commencing with Section 1580) 1560) 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.