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March 11, 2025

Unions support CT bill to limit use of electronic monitoring, AI systems by employers

HBJ PHOTO | DAVID KRECHEVSKY The State Capitol in Hartford.
By David Krechevsky

A bill that would limit the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems by employers has drawn support from labor unions. 

The legislature’s Labor and Public Employees Committee will discuss the bill, Senate Bill 1484, during a public hearing Tuesday. 

Called An Act implementing Artificial Intelligence Protections for Employees, the bill was sponsored by the committee. According to the text of the 11-page bill, its stated purpose is to “limit the use of electronic monitoring by an employer and establish various requirements concerning the use of artificial intelligence systems by employers.”

In testimony submitted in advance of Tuesday’s hearing, both the Connecticut AFL-CIO and SEIU CT State Council expressed their support for the bill.

Stacey Zimmerman, associate director for the SEIU CT State Council, said in her testimony that the bill “is a positive initial step to protecting employees from undue surveillance and intrusive meddling into their privacy.” 

She said AI will transform workplaces “in ways we cannot even imagine yet,” and that in many ways it will “be beneficial for both the employer and the employee, but we cannot sit back and wait to regulate this tool. This bill injects some humanity into the rule of the robot and will support the transition that AI will bring.”

In his testimony, Connecticut AFL-CIO President Ed Hawthorne thanks the committee for raising the bill.

“The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) into the workplace also brings a number of serious concerns, including discrimination, surveillance, suppression of the right to organize, contingent and other precarious work, lower wages, and job loss,” Hawthorne states. “Workers may be monitored by AI, have adverse employment decisions made by AI, and may fear for their job security due to increasing reliance on AI.”

While supportive of the overall bill, Hawthorne offers several amendments he would like the committee to consider, including making the use of AI in public work “a mandatory subject of collective bargaining in the Municipal Employees Relations Act (MERA) and the State Employees Relations Act (SERA).”

He also states that the bill lacks an “enforcement mechanism,” while also suggesting broadening the definition of “consequential decision” to include benefits, hours, schedule, duties, productivity requirements, workplace health and safety “or other terms or conditions of employment, including independent contractors.”

The Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA), meanwhile, submitted testimony opposing the bill. 

“CHA believes the bill is unwise and creates unwarranted barriers to the use of common technologies in a manner that results in overregulating technologies and AI,” the association states. “We urge you to reject the sweeping approach to technology regulation in this bill.”

In addition to the AI bill, the agenda for the public hearing includes eight other bills. Among them is S.B. 1485, which would establish a working group to study and provide recommendations for the apprenticeship ratio relief application process, and House Bill 7196, which would prohibit the use of noncompete agreements and exclusivity agreements unless they meet certain requirements.

The Labor and Public Employees Committee is scheduled to conduct its public hearing on Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Room 1B of the Legislative Office Building.

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