2026 -- S 2499 SUBSTITUTE A

========

LC004709/SUB A

========

     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2026

____________

A N   A C T

RELATING TO LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS -- ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE USE

AND FAIR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

     Introduced By: Senators Gu, DiPalma, Zurier, Urso, Ciccone, Burke, McKenney, Bell,
and Appollonio

     Date Introduced: February 06, 2026

     Referred To: Senate Labor & Gaming

     It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

     SECTION 1. Title 28 of the General Laws entitled "LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS"

is hereby amended by adding thereto the following chapter:

CHAPTER 5.2

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE USE AND FAIR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

     28-5.2-1. Definitions.

     (a) As used in this chapter, the following words shall have the following meanings unless

the context clearly requires otherwise:

     (1) "Authorized representative" means any person or organization appointed by the worker

to serve as a representative of the worker including, but not limited to, a labor organization as

defined in the Rhode Island labor relations act § 28-7-3, the National Labor Relations Act 29 U.S.C.

§ 152(5) and 5 U.S.C. § 7103(a)(4), and 45 U.S.C. § 151. "Authorized representative" shall not

include a worker’s employer.

     (2) "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.

     (3) "Automated decision system (ADS) output" means any information, data, assumptions,

predictions, scoring, recommendations, decisions, or conclusions generated by an ADS.

     (4) "Candidate" means any natural person or their authorized representative seeking

employment through an application, or who is screened or evaluated for recruitment, for a position

of employment by a business operating in this state.

     (5) "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.

     (6) "Department" means the department of labor and training.

     (7) "De-identified employee data" means employee data that an employer has sought from

their own electronic systems, from a vendor, or from a third-party source, aggregated, combined,

or collected together, in a summary or other form so that the employee data cannot be identified as

belonging to any specific employee.

     (8) "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.

     (9) "Employee" shall have the same meaning as contained in § 28-7-3.

     (10) "Employee information" (also referred to as "information" or "employee data") means

any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with,

or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular employee, regardless of how

the information is collected, inferred, or obtained. "Employee information" includes, but is not

limited to, the following: personal identity information, including the individual's name, contact

information, government-issued identification numbers, financial information, criminal

background, or employment history; biometric information, health, medical, lifestyle, and wellness

information, including the individual's medical history, physical or mental condition, diet or

physical activity patterns, heart rate, medical treatment or diagnosis by a healthcare professional,

health insurance policy number, subscriber identification number, or other unique identifier used

to identify the individual; related to workplace activities, including the following:

     (i) Human resources information means the contents of an individual's personnel file

including performance evaluations;

LC004709/SUB A - Page 2 of 5

     (ii) Work process information, such as data relating to an individual employee's

performance or productivity including, but not limited to, the quality and quantities of tasks

performed, quality and quantities of items or materials handled or produced, rates or speeds of tasks

performed, measurements or metrics of employee performance in relation to a quota, and time

categorized as performing tasks or not performing tasks;

     (iii) Device usage and data including, but not limited to, key stroke recording, website,

software, and application utilization, calls placed or geolocation information;

     (iv) Audio, photo, or video data or other information collected from sensors, including

movement tracking, thermal sensors, voiceprints, or facial recognition, emotion, and gait

recognition;

     (v) Inputs to or outputs generated by an automated decision system (ADS) that are linked

to the individual;

     (vi) Data collected through electronic monitoring or continuous incremental time-tracking

tools; and

     (vii) Data collected or generated on workers to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases,

including COVID-19, or to comply with public health measures.

     (11) "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.

     (12) "Employment-related decision" means a decision made by the employer that affects

wages, benefits, other compensation, hours, schedule, performance evaluation, hiring, recruitment,

discipline, promotion, termination, duties, assignment of work, access to work opportunities,

productivity requirements, workplace health and safety, or other terms or conditions of

employment. For persons classified as independent contractors or for candidates for employment,

this means the equivalent of these decisions based on their contract with or relationship to the

employer.

     (13) "Essential job functions" means the fundamental duties of a position, based upon work

duties actually performed over the duration of employment, as revealed by objective evidence,

including the amount of time workers spend performing each function, the consequences of not

requiring individuals to perform the function, the terms of any applicable collective bargaining

agreement, workers’ past and present work experiences and performance in the position in question,

and the employer’s reasonable, nondiscriminatory judgment as to which functions are essential.

Past and current written job descriptions may be evidence as to which functions are essential for

achieving the purposes of the job, but may not be the sole basis for this determination, absent the

LC004709/SUB A - Page 3 of 5

objective evidence described in this subsection.

     (14) "Impact assessment" means an impartial evaluation by an independent auditor that

complies with § 28-5.2-2.

     (15) "Meaningful human oversight" means a process that includes, at a minimum:

     (i) That sufficient authority and discretion be granted to the designated internal reviewer to

dispute, rerun, or recommend the rejection of an output suspected to be invalid, inaccurate, or

discriminatory; and

     (ii) That the designated internal reviewer has the time and resources available to review

and evaluate the tool output and to review employee requests to correct erroneous data in

accordance with § 28-5.2-2.

     (16) "Periodic assessment of worker performance" means assessing worker performance

over the course of units of time equal to or greater than one calendar day.

     (17) "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.

     28-5.2-2. Electronic monitoring tools.

     (a) 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.

     (b) 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

LC004709/SUB A - Page 4 of 5

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.

     SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.

========

LC004709/SUB A

========

LC004709/SUB A - Page 5 of 5

EXPLANATION

BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

OF

A N   A C T

RELATING TO LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS -- ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE USE

AND FAIR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

***

     This act would create a comprehensive statutory framework to address and regulate the use

of artificial intelligence in the workplace, considering the interests of employers and employees.

     This act would take effect upon passage.

========

LC004709/SUB A

========

LC004709/SUB A - Page 6 of 5