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.