A invoice launched within the Washington state Legislature would ban employers from requiring or pressuring employees to be microchipped, a follow lawmakers wish to prohibit earlier than it ever turns into a problem.
Home Invoice 2303 was prefiled this week by Reps. Brianna Thomas (D-34) and Lisa Parshley (D-22).
The invoice would prohibit employers from requiring, requesting or coercing workers to have microchips implanted of their our bodies as a situation of employment, and would bar the usage of subcutaneous monitoring or identification expertise for office administration or surveillance.
It goals to guard employee privateness and bodily autonomy by establishing strict penalties for violations, together with civil penalties beginning at $10,000 and the suitable for aggrieved employees to sue for damages and injunctive aid.
Whereas there’s no identified occasion of an employer searching for such motion, Thomas informed GeekWire the invoice is a preemptive transfer.
“We’re getting out forward of the issue as a result of the follow of requiring these chips is simply too harmful to attend for it to point out up in Washington,” she stated Thursday through electronic mail. “An worker with a microchip stops being an worker — they’re basically being dehumanized into company tools.”
The Carnegie Council for Ethics in Worldwide Affairs reported that internationally, greater than 50,000 folks have elected to obtain microchip implants to function their swipe keys, bank cards, and extra. The group famous that the expertise is very fashionable in Sweden, the place chip implants are extra broadly accepted for fitness center entry, e-tickets on transit techniques, and to retailer emergency contact info.
HB 2303 would add a brand new part to Chapter 49.44 of the Revised Code of Washington (RCW), titled “Violations — Prohibited Practices.” The chapter serves as a catch-all for labor laws that outline and prohibit particular unfair or unlawful actions by employers, workers, and labor representatives.
The laws is just like legal guidelines handed in Arkansas, California, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Wisconsin, Indiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.
“Employees can’t legitimately consent to a program due to the facility dynamic between them and the employer,” Thomas stated. “Implanted chips haven’t any place in a piece atmosphere.”
Nevada is “arguably probably the most restrictive” on microchip implants and everlasting identification markers, in keeping with the Carnegie Council. Its regulation prohibits folks from voluntarily electing to obtain such markers in Nevada.
Thomas stated HB 2303 doesn’t go so far as Nevada’s restrictions, noting that employees would nonetheless be free to make their very own decisions outdoors the office.
Thomas stated she believes corporations will finally pitch the expertise to their workers by telling them it’s extra handy and simpler — you don’t have to fret about forgetting your work entry badge, and so on.
“Many occasions comfort causes folks to view issues too narrowly they usually don’t see the large image,” she stated. “The facility dynamic between an employer and an worker makes true, uncoerced consent not possible. That is about ensuring employees not solely have the choice but in addition take into account all of the elements when these applications are introduced to them.”
The Carnegie Council additionally reported on the privateness, knowledge safety, and well being security issues that microchips current, together with from technologists who fear about IoT vulnerabilities in sensors and community structure that might be exploited by hackers.
Whereas the Washington proposal targets easy Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, a extra refined wave of “brain-computer interfaces” (BCIs) is quickly transferring towards the mainstream.
Elon Musk needs to ramp up manufacturing of his Neuralink mind‑laptop interface chips in 2026. He envisions the expertise serving to folks with neurological circumstances whereas finally enabling people to work together straight with computer systems. The corporate plans to make the surgical implantation course of practically absolutely automated to scale the process.
Washington’s HB 2303 is scheduled for a public listening to Jan. 14 within the Home Committee on Labor & Office Requirements.
