Law / United States / 
California
Employment Technological Displacement Notice (SB 951)
Cal. Lab. Code Sections 1400.5, 1401 and 1402.7 (SB 951, Ch. 860, Stats. 2026)
An AI sector rules rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Reporting, Disclosure
As of .
What it requires
- When a mass layoff, relocation, or termination at a covered establishment is caused in whole or in substantial part by an AI system or other automated technology replacing or automating employment positions, add to the written notice the number, classification or occupation, and work location of the layoffs substantially due to the replacement or automation
- Include in that notice the job functions performed by the replaced workers that will be automated and the specific category or type of AI system or other automating technology that substantially resulted in the technological displacement
- Put the statement "This notice is for a technology displacement" at the top of that notice
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- GOVERN 4.2Organizational teams document the risks and potential impacts of the AI technology they design, develop, deploy, evaluate, and use, and they communicate about the impacts more broadly.
- NIST AI 600-1
- GAI-RISK-07Human-AI Configuration
- GAI-RISK-08Information Integrity
- GAI-RISK-09Information Security
- MIT mitigations Draft
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-DET-004AI System Observability
- AIR-DET-021Agent Decision Audit and Explainability
- ETSI EN 304 223
- 5.1.3-2Threats developers cannot resolve are passed to operators and on to end-users.
- 5.2.2-5AI-specific incident management and recovery plans that are created, tested and maintained.
- 5.3.1-1Users told where and how their data is used, accessed and stored, with developers informing operators.
- 5.3.1-2.1That guidance covers proper use, limits and likely failure modes.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
The act does not set a new penalty. The Legislative Counsel's digest records that existing law subjects an employer that fails to give the required Cal/WARN notice to a civil penalty of not more than $500 for each day of the violation.
- Rule
- Per violation only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Per violation unit
- Day
- Per violation amount
- 500
Over one month of continuous breach, USD 15,220.
What this law does
SB 951 was chaptered on as Chapter 860 of the Statutes of 2026. An employer giving notice of a mass layoff, relocation, or termination caused in whole or in substantial part by an AI system or other automated technology replacing or automating employment positions must add the number, classification, and location of the affected layoffs, the job functions that will be automated, and the category of AI system or automating technology involved.
The notice must also carry the statement that it is for a technology displacement at the top. The Employment Development Department must publish a summary of these notices and a quarterly statewide summary of technology displacements. The act also directs the department to report to the Legislature by on artificial intelligence's effects on business hiring practices.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app makes employment decisions.