Washington state legislators approved a bill to ban employers from requiring or pressuring workers to be microchipped, aiming to prohibit the practice before it ever becomes an issue.
HB 2303 was unanimously passed by the Senate this week. The House of Representatives passed the legislation 87-6 last month. If Gov. Bob Ferguson signs the legislation, Washington would become the 14th state to pass such a law.
The bill prohibits employers from requiring, requesting or coercing employees to have microchips implanted in their bodies as a condition of employment, and would bar the use of subcutaneous tracking or identification technology for workplace management or surveillance.
“We are getting out ahead of the problem because the practice of requiring these chips is too dangerous to wait for it to show up in Washington,” Reps. Brianna Thomas (D-34) previously told GeekWire. “An employee with a microchip stops being an employee — they are essentially being dehumanized into corporate equipment.”
HB 2303 would add a new section to Chapter 49.44 of the Revised Code of Washington (RCW), titled “Violations — Prohibited Practices.” The chapter serves as a catch-all for labor regulations that define and prohibit specific unfair or illegal activities by employers, employees, and labor representatives.
The legislation is similar to laws passed in Arkansas, California, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Wisconsin, Indiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.
The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs reported that internationally, more than 50,000 people have elected to receive microchip implants to serve as their swipe keys, credit cards, and more. The organization noted that the technology is especially popular in Sweden, where chip implants are more widely accepted for gym access, e-tickets on transit systems, and to store emergency contact information.
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