HR6371-119

What This Bill Does

The No Robot Bosses Act creates a workplace algorithm accountability regime. It defines automated decision systems broadly to include software, machine learning, statistical, data-processing, and artificial-intelligence tools that determine outcomes, aid decisions, inform policy implementation, or collect observations, while excluding passive infrastructure. Employers may not rely exclusively on an automated decision system for employment-related decisions and may not use an automated decision system output unless the system has predeployment testing for efficacy, discrimination-law compliance, discriminatory impact, and NIST AI Risk Management Framework compliance. Systems must also receive annual independent discriminatory-impact or bias testing with public results. Employers must provide disclosures, meaningful human oversight, plain-language documentation within seven days after an employment decision, a machine-readable copy of input data, an explanation of how the output was used, and accessible dispute and appeal rights to a human reviewer. The bill establishes a Technology and Worker Protection Division at the Labor Department, lets the administrator hire technologists directly and set pay up to Executive Schedule level V, creates user, research, product, and labor advisory boards, authorizes regulations across private-sector, congressional, executive, GAO, Library of Congress, and OPM-covered workplaces, creates investigations and civil actions, coordinates with Federal and State regulators, preserves other Federal and State laws, and includes severability.

Who Benefits and How

Workers, job applicants, labor organizations, disability rights advocates, civil rights advocates, and employees subject to workplace algorithms benefit because employers must test systems, disclose algorithm use, add human oversight, and provide explanations, disputes, and appeals. Independent AI auditors, workplace technology experts, civil-rights lawyers, and Labor Department technologists benefit from new compliance, enforcement, and advisory-board roles.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Employers using hiring, promotion, pay, scheduling, discipline, termination, productivity, or other employment algorithms bear compliance costs for testing, validation, disclosures, human review, recordkeeping, reports, and litigation risk. Workplace AI vendors face pressure to support validation and transparency. The Labor Department, OPM, congressional workplace offices, GAO, Library of Congress, FTC, EEOC, NLRB, and other agencies must write rules, coordinate, investigate, and enforce.

Key Provisions

• Defines automated decision systems, outputs, candidates, covered individuals, employers, and employment-related decisions.
• Bars employers from relying exclusively on automated decision systems for employment-related decisions.
• Requires predeployment validation, annual independent bias testing, public test results, disclosures, human corroboration, documentation, disputes, and appeals.
• Establishes a Labor Department Technology and Worker Protection Division with direct technologist hiring authority and advisory boards.
• Requires regulations across private-sector, congressional, executive, GAO, Library of Congress, and Federal employee contexts.
• Authorizes investigations, reports, civil actions, agency coordination, preservation of stronger laws, and severability.