H-7767
RI · State · USA
RI
USA
● Pending
Rhode Island H 7767 — An Act Relating to Labor and Labor Relations — Artificial Intelligence Use and Fair Employment Practices
Establishes a comprehensive framework regulating employer use of electronic monitoring tools and automated decision systems in the workplace. Employers may only use electronic monitoring for enumerated legitimate purposes and must narrowly tailor tools to be minimally invasive. Requires detailed written notice to employees before monitoring, mandates independent impact assessments before using electronic monitoring (alone or with ADS), and imposes data minimization, retention limits, and transfer restrictions on employee data. Prohibits use of facial recognition, gait analysis, voice analysis, and emotion recognition in electronic monitoring. Requires meaningful human oversight of employment decisions based on monitoring data and protects employees from retaliation for refusing AI outputs they believe in good faith would cause harm. Enforcement authority is shared between the Department of Labor and Training and the Attorney General.
Summary

Establishes a comprehensive framework regulating employer use of electronic monitoring tools and automated decision systems in the workplace. Employers may only use electronic monitoring for enumerated legitimate purposes and must narrowly tailor tools to be minimally invasive. Requires detailed written notice to employees before monitoring, mandates independent impact assessments before using electronic monitoring (alone or with ADS), and imposes data minimization, retention limits, and transfer restrictions on employee data. Prohibits use of facial recognition, gait analysis, voice analysis, and emotion recognition in electronic monitoring. Requires meaningful human oversight of employment decisions based on monitoring data and protects employees from retaliation for refusing AI outputs they believe in good faith would cause harm. Enforcement authority is shared between the Department of Labor and Training and the Attorney General.

Enforcement & Penalties
Enforcement Authority
Enforcement is split between two agencies. The Department of Labor and Training is directed to promulgate implementing rules and regulations and has authority to request employer data records. The Office of the Attorney General is directed to promulgate rules necessary to protect consumers and the public from privacy violations and harms resulting from AI and automated decision systems. Violations of the anti-retaliation provisions are subject to penalties as provided in Title 28. Workers and authorized representatives have the right to comment on, challenge, and bargain over proposed monitoring based on impact assessment findings, but no express private right of action is created for violations of the chapter's substantive provisions.
Penalties
Violations of the anti-retaliation provision are subject to penalties as provided in Title 28. The bill does not specify dollar amounts for civil penalties, statutory damages, or a private damages remedy. The bill title references 'civil claims for adverse employment action taken based on prohibited conduct' but the operative text refers only to penalties under existing Title 28 provisions.
Who Is Covered
"Employer" means any person acting on behalf of or in the interest of an employer, directly or indirectly, with or without their knowledge, but a labor organization or any officer or its agent, shall only be considered an employer of individuals employed by the organization.
"Vendor" means any person or entity who sells, distributes, or develops for sale an automated decision system to be used in an employment decision made by an employer in the state. "Vendor" includes any of the vendor's agents, contractors, or subcontractors.
What Is Covered
"Automated decision system (ADS)" means any computational process, automated system, or algorithm utilizing machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, artificial intelligence, or similar methods, that issues an output, including a score, classification, ranking, or recommendation, that is used to assist or replace human decision making, on issues that impact natural persons. "ADS" does not include a tool that does not assist or replace employment decision processes and that does not materially impact natural persons including, but not limited to, a junk email filter, firewall, antivirus software, calculator, spreadsheet, database, data set, or other compilation of data.
"Electronic monitoring tool" means any system, application, or instrument that facilitates the collection of data concerning worker activities or communications by any means other than direct observation by a natural person including, but not limited to, the use of a computer, telephone, wire, radio, camera, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, or photo-optical system, or obtaining employee data from a third-party.
"Continuous incremental time-tracking tool" means any system, application or instrument that continuously measures, records and/or tallies increments of time within a day during which an employee is or is not doing a particular activity or set of activities.
Compliance Obligations 11 obligations · click obligation ID to open requirement page
D-01 Automated Processing Rights & Data Controls · D-01.4 · Deployer · Employment
§ 28-5.2-2(a)-(b)
Plain Language
Employers may only use electronic monitoring tools to collect employee information if the tool is primarily used for one of six enumerated legitimate purposes (facilitating essential job functions, quality assurance, periodic performance assessment, legal compliance, health/safety/security, or wage/benefit administration). Beyond meeting a legitimate purpose, the employer must narrowly tailor the tool's type and capabilities to that purpose, implement it in the least invasive manner possible, limit monitoring to the fewest workers and least data necessary, prohibit collection when employees are off-duty, ensure unnecessary data is never disclosed to the employer, and delete collected data once the purpose is achieved. This is a comprehensive data minimization and purpose limitation regime for workplace monitoring.
Statutory Text
(a) It shall be unlawful for an employer to use an electronic monitoring tool to collect employee information unless: (1) The electronic monitoring tool is primarily used to accomplish any of the following legitimate purposes: (i) Allowing a worker to accomplish or facilitating the accomplishment of an essential job function; (ii) Ensuring the quality of goods and services; (iii) Conducting periodic assessment of worker performance; (iv) Ensuring or facilitating compliance with employment, labor, or other relevant laws; (v) Protecting the health, safety, or security of workers, or the security of the employer's facilities or computer networks; or (vi) Administering wages and benefits. (2) The department of labor and training standards may establish additional exceptions under this subsection, pursuant to chapter 35 of title 42 ("administrative procedures act.") (b)(1) The specific type and activated capabilities of an electronic monitoring tool shall be narrowly tailored to accomplish the employer's intended, legitimate purpose specified under subsection (a)(1) of this section; (2) The electronic monitoring tool shall only be used to accomplish the employer's intended, legitimate purpose specified in subsection (a)(1) of this section, and shall be customized and implemented in a manner ensuring that the execution of its duties are undertaken in the manner least invasive to employees of the employer, while still accomplishing the employer's legitimate purposes as defined by subsection (a)(1) of this section; (3) The specific form of electronic monitoring is limited to the smallest number of workers, collection of the least amount of data which shall be collected no more frequently than is necessary to accomplish the purpose, and the data collected, shall be deleted once the purpose has been achieved; (4) The employer shall ensure that any employee data that is collected utilizing an electronic monitoring tool that is not necessary to accomplish the employer's intended, legitimate purpose shall not be disclosed to the employer and shall be promptly disposed of by the vendor; (5) The employer shall ensure that employee data is not collected when the employee is off-duty; and (6) The employer shall ensure that any employee data collected utilizing an electronic monitoring tool that is necessary to accomplish the employer's intended, legitimate purpose, is stored consistent with the state's data and cyber privacy laws, promptly disposed of as soon as the data is no longer needed, and is not utilized by the employer, the vendor or any other third party for any reason except, as provided in subsection (c) of this section.
D-01 Automated Processing Rights & Data Controls · D-01.1 · Deployer · Employment
§ 28-5.2-2(c)
Plain Language
Before using any electronic monitoring tool, employers must provide prior written notice to all affected employees and candidates and obtain written acknowledgment. The notice must also be posted conspicuously where candidates and employees can see it. The notice must cover eleven specific categories of information: the monitoring purpose, what data is collected and how it is stored and disposed of, monitoring schedule, whether data feeds into an ADS, whether data informs employment decisions, downstream uses of data (discipline, litigation, etc.), whether it sets productivity standards, data storage location and retention period, why this is the least invasive approach, employee rights to refuse data sale/transfer, and how to exercise rights under the chapter. This is a comprehensive transparency obligation that must be satisfied before monitoring begins.
Statutory Text
(c) Any employer that uses an electronic monitoring tool shall give prior written notice and shall obtain written acknowledgment from all candidates and employees subject to electronic monitoring and shall also post said notice in a conspicuous place which is readily available for viewing by candidates for employment and employees. Such notice shall include, at a minimum, the following: (1) A description of the purpose for which the electronic monitoring tool will be used, as specified in subsection (a)(1) of this section; (2) A description of the specific employee data to be collected, stored, secured, and disposed of (and the schedule therefor), and the activities, locations, communications, and job roles that will be electronically monitored by the tool; (3) A description of the dates, times, and frequency that electronic monitoring will occur; (4) Whether and how any employee data collected by the electronic monitoring tool will be used as an input in an automated decision system; (5) Whether and how any employee data collected by the electronic monitoring tool will alone or in conjunction with an automated decision system be used to make an employment decision by the employer or employment agency; (6) Whether and how any employee data collected by the electronic monitoring tool may be stored and utilized in discipline, in internal policy compliance, in administrative agency adjudications, in litigation (whether or not it involves the employee or not as a party); (7) Whether any employee data collected by the electronic monitoring tool will be used to assess employees' productivity performance or to set productivity standards, and if so, how; (8) A description of where any employee data collected by the electronic monitoring tool will be stored and the length of time it will be retained; (9) An explanation for how the specific electronic monitoring practice is the least invasive means available to accomplish the monitoring purpose; (10) That an employee is entitled to notice and maintains the right to refuse the sale, transfer, or disclosure of their employee data, subject to the provisions of subsection (g) of this section; and (11) A clear and reasonably understandable description of how an employee can exercise the rights described in this chapter.
G-01 AI Governance Program & Documentation · G-01.3G-01.4 · Deployer · Employment
§ 28-5.2-2(d)
Plain Language
Employers must create and maintain contemporaneous, true, and accurate records of all electronic monitoring data used in employment decisions (hiring, promotion, termination, discipline, compensation) and retain them for five years. All employee information collected via electronic monitoring must be destroyed no later than 61 months after collection unless the employee provides written, informed consent to longer retention. Employers must also implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical data security practices appropriate to the data's volume and nature. Employees have the right to request corrections to erroneous data. Records must be producible upon request by the employee, their authorized representative, or the Department of Labor and Training.
Statutory Text
(d) An employer shall establish, maintain, and preserve for five (5) years contemporaneous, true, and accurate records of data gathered through the use of an electronic monitoring tool and used in a hiring, promotion, termination, disciplinary or compensation decision to ensure compliance with the employee or their authorized representative or the department requests for data. The employer shall destroy any employee information collected via an electronic monitoring tool no later than sixty-one (61) months after collection unless the employee has provided written and informed consent to the retention of their data by the employer. An employer shall establish, implement and maintain reasonable administrative, technical and physical data security practices to protect the confidentiality, integrity and accessibility of employee data, appropriate to the volume and nature of the employee data at issue. An employee shall have the right to request corrections to erroneous employee data.
S-02 Prohibited Conduct & Output Restrictions · Deployer · EmploymentBiometrics
§ 28-5.2-2(e)
Plain Language
Even where electronic monitoring is used for a legitimate purpose, employers face twelve categorical prohibitions. They may not use monitoring that violates any state law, threatens employee health/welfare/safety/rights, monitors off-duty workers, collects protected-class information (health, race, sex, gender identity, etc.), surveils protected labor activity, monitors private spaces (bathrooms, locker rooms, breakrooms, prayer areas), monitors employees' homes or personal vehicles, uses facial recognition, uses gait/voice analysis/emotion recognition, retaliates against employees who refuse practices they believe violate the law, takes adverse action based on continuous incremental time-tracking data (except for egregious misconduct), or takes adverse action based on undisclosed performance standards or improperly noticed data. The facial recognition and biometric analysis prohibitions are absolute — no exception or legitimate purpose overrides them.
Statutory Text
(e) Notwithstanding the allowable purposes for electronic monitoring described in subsection (a) of this section, an employer shall not: (1) Use an electronic monitoring tool in such a manner that results in a violation of labor, employment, civil rights law or any other law of the state; (2) Use an electronic monitoring tool or data collected via an electronic monitoring tool in such a manner as to threaten the health, welfare, safety, or legal rights of employees or the general public; (3) Use an electronic monitoring tool to monitor employees who are off-duty or not performing work-related tasks; (4) Use an electronic monitoring tool in order to obtain information about an employee's health, including health status and health conditions, the race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, genetic information, pregnancy or a condition related to said pregnancy including, but not limited to, lactation or the need to express breast milk for a nursing child, ancestry or status as a veteran or membership in any group protected from employment discrimination under title 28 or any other applicable law; (5) Use an electronic monitoring tool in order to identify, punish, or obtain information about employees engaging in activity protected under labor or employment law; (6) Conduct audio or visual monitoring of bathrooms or other similarly private areas, including locker rooms, changing areas, breakrooms, smoking areas, employee cafeterias, lounges, and areas designated to express breast milk, or areas designated for prayer or other religious activity, including data collection on the frequency of use of those private areas; (7) Conduct audio or visual monitoring of a workplace in an employee's residence, an employee's personal vehicle, or property owned or leased by an employee; (8) Use an electronic monitoring tool that incorporates facial recognition; (9) Use an electronic monitoring tool that incorporates gait, voice analysis, or emotion recognition technology; (10) Take adverse action against an employee, based, in whole or in part, on their opposition or refusal to submit to a practice that the employee believes in good faith violates this section; (11) Take adverse employment action against an employee on the basis of data collected via continuous incremental time-tracking tools, except in the case of egregious misconduct; or (12) Take adverse employment action against an employee based on any data collected via electronic monitoring, if such data measures an employee's performance in relation to a performance standard that has not been previously, clearly, and unmistakably disclosed to such employee, as well as to all other classes of employees to whom it applies in violation of this section, or if such data was collected without proper notice to employees or candidates pursuant to this section.
D-01 Automated Processing Rights & Data Controls · D-01.4 · Deployer · Employment
§ 28-5.2-2(f)-(g)
Plain Language
Employers face two related restrictions on monitored employee data: (1) a strict purpose limitation — data may only be used for the purposes described in the notice given to employees, and (2) a near-total ban on selling, transferring, or disclosing employee data to other entities, with exceptions only for legal requirements or compliance with an ADS impact assessment. These provisions together create a closed-loop data governance regime where employee monitoring data stays within the noticed scope and does not leave the employer absent legal compulsion.
Statutory Text
(f) An employer shall not use employee data collected via an electronic monitoring tool for purposes other than those specified in the notice provided pursuant to subsection (c) of this section. (g) An employer shall not sell, transfer, or disclose employee data collected via an electronic monitoring tool to any other entity unless it is required to do so under federal law or the laws of the state, or necessary to do so to comply with an impact assessment of an automated decision system used pursuant to this section.
Other · Employment
§ 28-5.2-2(h)
Plain Language
Employers may not require employees to implant subcutaneous or wearable data-collection devices, install data-transmitting applications on personal devices, or carry location-tracking devices. The only exception is location tracking that is conducted exclusively during work hours and strictly necessary for essential job functions. This is a categorical prohibition on employer-mandated invasive or personal-device monitoring infrastructure.
Statutory Text
(h) An employer shall not require employees to: (1) Physically implant devices that collect or transmit data, including devices that are installed subcutaneously or incorporated into items of clothing or personal accessories; (2) Install applications on personal devices that collect or transmit employee data or to wear or embed those devices; or (3) Carry or use any device with location tracking applications or services enabled, unless the location tracking is: (i) Conducted during work hours only; and (ii) Strictly necessary to accomplish essential job functions and narrowly limited to only the activities and times required to accomplish essential job functions.
H-01 Human Oversight of Automated Decisions · H-01.1H-01.2H-01.6 · Deployer · Employment
§ 28-5.2-2(i)
Plain Language
Employers may not rely primarily on electronic monitoring data when making hiring, promotion, discipline, termination, or compensation decisions. Three requirements must be met: (1) the employer must establish meaningful human oversight — which requires designating an internal reviewer with ADS expertise, familiarity with the latest impact assessment, authority to dispute or reject outputs, and adequate time and resources; (2) a human decision-maker must verify the accuracy and currency of monitoring data, review pending correction requests, and exercise independent judgment; and (3) the human decision-maker must consider non-monitoring information (supervisor evaluations, personnel files, work products, peer reviews). This effectively prevents electronic monitoring from being the sole or primary basis for consequential employment decisions.
Statutory Text
(i) An employer shall not rely primarily on employee data collected through electronic monitoring, when making hiring, promotion, disciplinary decisions up to and including termination, or compensation decisions. For an employer to satisfy the requirements of this subsection: (1) An employer shall establish meaningful human oversight of such decisions that are based, in whole or in part, on data collected through electronic monitoring. (2) A human decision-maker shall review any information collected through electronic monitoring, verify that such information is accurate and up to date, review any pending employee requests to correct erroneous data, and exercise independent judgment in making each such decision; and (3) The human decision-maker shall consider information other than information collected through electronic monitoring, when making each such decision including, but not limited to, supervisory or managerial evaluations, personnel files, employee work products, or peer reviews.
H-01 Human Oversight of Automated Decisions · H-01.1H-01.2 · Deployer · Employment
§ 28-5.2-2(j)
Plain Language
When an employer makes any consequential employment decision (hiring, promotion, termination, discipline, compensation) based in whole or in part on electronic monitoring data, it must disclose to the affected employee and their authorized representative within 30 days: (1) that monitoring data was used, (2) which specific tools were used, how they gather and analyze data, and the time increments used, (3) the specific data and judgments derived from it that informed the decision, and (4) any non-monitoring information also used. This post-decision disclosure must occur within 30 days of the decision being made or going into effect, whichever is sooner. The disclosure goes to both the employee and their union or other authorized representative.
Statutory Text
(j) When an employer makes a hiring, promotion, termination, disciplinary or compensation decision, based, in whole or in part, on data gathered through the use of electronic monitoring, it shall disclose to affected employees and their authorized representative within thirty (30) days of the decision being made or going into effect, whichever is sooner: (1) That the decision was based, in whole or in part, on data gathered through electronic monitoring; (2) The specific electronic monitoring tool or tools used to gather such data, how the tools work to gather and analyze the data, and the increments of time in which the data is gathered; (3) The specific data, and judgments based upon such data, used in the decision-making process; and (4) Any information used in the decision-making process gathered through sources other than electronic monitoring.
H-02 Non-Discrimination & Bias Assessment · H-02.3H-02.6H-02.7 · Deployer · Employment
§ 28-5.2-2(k)
Plain Language
Employers may not use electronic monitoring — alone or with an ADS — unless the proposed use has undergone an independent impact assessment. The assessment must be conducted within one year prior to use (or within six months for monitoring already in place when the law takes effect), by an independent and impartial auditor with no financial or legal conflicts of interest and no involvement with the ADS in the preceding five years. The assessment must evaluate data protection and cybersecurity practices, identify allowable purposes, describe potential legal violations and steps to prevent them, and assess negative impacts on employee privacy and job quality. The full assessment must be disclosed in plain language to all affected workers and authorized representatives within 30 days, and workers have the right to comment on, challenge, and bargain over the proposed monitoring based on the findings.
Statutory Text
(k) It shall be unlawful for an employer to use electronic monitoring, alone or in conjunction with an automated decision system, unless the employer's proposed use of electronic monitoring has been the subject of an impact assessment. Such impact assessments shall: (1) Be conducted no more than one year prior to the use of such electronic monitoring, or where the electronic monitoring began before the effective date of this section, within six (6) months of the effective date of this chapter; (2) Be conducted by an independent and impartial party with no financial or legal conflicts of interest; (3) Evaluate whether the data protection and security practices surrounding the electronic monitoring are consistent with applicable law and cybersecurity industry's best practices; (4) Identify the allowable purpose(s) as defined in this chapter; (5) Consider and describe any other ways in which the electronic monitoring could result in a violation of applicable law and, for any finding that a violation of law may occur, any necessary or appropriate steps to prevent such violation of law; (6) Consider and describe whether the electronic monitoring may negatively impact employees' privacy and job quality, including wages, hours, and working conditions; and (7) Be disclosed in full, in plain language, to all affected workers and their authorized representatives within thirty (30) days of the employer's receipt of the impact assessment. (i) Workers and their authorized representatives shall have the right to comment on, challenge and bargain over the proposed monitoring based on the assessment's findings.
G-03 Whistleblower & Anti-Retaliation Protections · G-03.3 · Deployer · Employment
§ 28-5.2-3(a)
Plain Language
Employees who exercise independent professional judgment, or whose duties require state licensure/certification, are protected from termination, discipline, or other adverse action for refusing to follow AI/ADS outputs if they believe in good faith the output would cause harm. Protection requires meeting at least one of four conditions: (1) the employee holds independent judgment or is licensed/certified; (2) the employee notified management that the output may cause harm and the employer failed to adjust it; (3) the employee refused in good faith with a reasonable belief of harm; or (4) the urgency of potential harm left no time for correction through normal channels. This is a conditional anti-retaliation right — it does not protect blanket refusal to use AI tools, but specifically protects good-faith professional override of AI outputs the employee believes would cause harm.
Statutory Text
(a) An employee shall be protected from termination, disciplinary action, retaliation, or other adverse employment action for refusing to follow the output of an artificial intelligence system, automated decision system, algorithm, or other similar technology if the following conditions are met: (1) The employee holds independent judgment and discretion in executing their work duties, or the work duties to be performed by the employee require licensure or certification by the state, as a condition of employment, or independent accreditation by the employer; (2) The employee has notified a supervisor, manager, or their employer that the output from the artificial intelligence system, automated decision system, algorithm, or other similar technology may, in their professional opinion and/or educational or work related- experience, lead to the harm of a natural person, damage to physical property, an illegal action, an action contrary to the licensure or certification requirements of the federal government, state, or an applicable private licensing or certifying authority, or an outcome contrary to the goal of the employer, and the employer refused or otherwise failed to adjust the output; (3) The employee has refused to follow the output in good faith and with the knowledge or reasonable belief, based upon training, education, or experience, that the output would cause harm or have an adverse impact; or (4) Due to the urgency of the potential harm or adverse impact, there is not enough time for the output to be corrected through department action.
G-03 Whistleblower & Anti-Retaliation Protections · G-03.3 · Deployer · Employment
§ 28-5.2-4(a)-(b)
Plain Language
Two broad anti-retaliation protections apply: (1) employees may not be penalized in any way for seeking their rights under this chapter, and (2) employers who discharge or discriminate against employees for filing complaints with the attorney general or other agency, assisting in investigations, instituting proceedings, or testifying (or preparing to testify) in proceedings related to this chapter are subject to penalties under Title 28. This covers the full spectrum of retaliation — from filing an initial complaint through testifying at a hearing — and applies to all rights created by the chapter, not just the AI-output-refusal protection in § 28-5.2-3.
Statutory Text
(a) No employee shall be penalized by an employer in any way as a result of any action on the part of an employee to seek their rights under the provisions of this chapter. (b) Any employer who discharges or in any other manner discriminates against any employee because such employee has made a complaint to the attorney general or any other department, agency, or person, or assists in any investigation under this chapter, or has instituted, or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this chapter, or has testified or is about to testify in any such proceedings, commits a violation of this section and shall be subject to penalties as provided in title 28.