EU AI Act Article 26(7) — Employer duty to inform workers' representatives and affected workers before workplace use
Employers must inform workers' representatives and the affected workers before putting a high-risk AI system into service or using it at the workplace
Where this comes from
Provision: Article 26(7) — Employer duty to inform workers' representatives and affected workers before workplace use
Instrument: EU Artificial Intelligence Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689)
Citation: Article 26(7), Regulation (EU) 2024/1689
Text version: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), OJ L, 12.7.2024
Checked against the source: 2 September 2026
Who it applies to
High-risk AI deployer in scope — all of these:
- Service deploys AI systems in a professional capacity
- AI Act role is Deployer or we provide some AI systems and deploy others
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Employment and worker management
Annex III high-risk area (Art. 6(2)) — any one of these:
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Biometrics
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Critical infrastructure
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Education and vocational training
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Employment and worker management
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Essential public services
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Creditworthiness
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Insurance
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Law enforcement
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Migration, asylum and border control
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Administration of justice and democratic processes
…unless:
- AI Act scope exclusion is used exclusively for military, defence or national-security purposes or developed and used solely for scientific research and development
- Art. 2(3): the Regulation 'does not apply to AI systems where and in so far as they are placed on the market, put into service, or used with or without modification exclusively for military, defence or national security purposes'. (AI Act Art. 2(3))
- Art. 2(6): the Regulation 'does not apply to AI systems or AI models, including their output, specifically developed and put into service for the sole purpose of scientific research and development'. (AI Act Art. 2(6))
- Art. 6(3): an Annex III system is NOT high-risk where it does not pose a significant risk of harm to health, safety or fundamental rights, including by not materially influencing the outcome of decision making — which applies where the system (a) performs... (AI Act Art. 6(3))
- Art. 26(7) binds only 'deployers who are employers' putting a high-risk AI system into service or using it 'at the workplace'. A deployer outside an employment relationship — a public authority serving citizens, a platform serving consumers — owes nothing... (AI Act Art. 26(7))
Scope in the source's own terms
- Art. 2(1): the AI system is placed on the market or put into service in the Union, or the provider/deployer is established in the Union, or the output produced by the system is used in the Union
- Art. 6(2): the AI system falls within an area listed in Annex III and is therefore high-risk, no documented Art. 6(3) derogation applying (and it is ALWAYS high-risk where it performs profiling of natural persons)
- Art. 26(1), read with Art. 3(4): the actor is a 'deployer' — a natural or legal person using an AI system under its authority, other than in the course of a personal non-professional activity
- Art. 26(7): the deployer is an EMPLOYER and the system is put into service or used 'at the workplace' — outside the employment relationship this paragraph does not apply at all
What engineering work it implies
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- Information is clearly displayed to users
- Disclosure is accessible and understandable
- Disclosure timing is appropriate (before action)
- Language is appropriate for the audience
- Test: the disclosure is visible before the user acts on it
Evidence an auditor expects
- Process recordDocument reviewReviewed before each new workplace deployment or material change of purpose
Record of the information given to workers' representatives and affected workers BEFORE putting the system into service
Dated communication to workers' representatives and to the affected workers, sent before the system was put into service or used at the workplace, together with evidence that it followed the applicable Union and national law and practice on information of workers and their representatives (works council consultation minutes where applicable)
- Policy documentDocument review
Workplace AI information procedure
Standing procedure naming who informs whom, at what point in the deployment process, and the national information/consultation rules that apply in each Member State of operation
Questions people ask
- Does EU AI Act Article 26(7) — Employer duty to inform workers' representatives an… apply to my service?
- It applies when Service deploys AI systems in a professional capacity; AI Act role is Deployer or we provide some AI systems and deploy others; Annex III high-risk areas includes Employment and worker management; and at least one of: Annex III high-risk areas includes Biometrics; Annex III high-risk areas includes Critical infrastructure; Annex III high-risk areas includes Education and vocational training; Annex III high-risk areas includes Employment and worker management; Annex III high-risk areas includes Essential public services; Annex III high-risk areas includes Creditworthiness; Annex III high-risk areas includes Insurance; Annex III high-risk areas includes Law enforcement; Annex III high-risk areas includes Migration, asylum and border control; Annex III high-risk areas includes Administration of justice and democratic processes. It does not apply where AI Act scope exclusion is used exclusively for military, defence or national-security purposes or developed and used solely for scientific research and development.
- When does this become enforceable?
- EU AI Act Article 26(7) — Employer duty to inform workers' representatives an… is enforceable from 2 August 2026. Its current status is: in force.
- What evidence does an auditor expect?
- Record of the information given to workers' representatives and affected workers BEFORE putting the system into service; Workplace AI information procedure.
Find out whether this one lands on you
Landfall's pre-scan answers the applicability question above for your product in minutes, then turns every obligation that applies into traceable engineering tickets with a citation chain your auditors can follow.
Not legal advice. Landfall maps regulatory obligations to engineering work for planning purposes. Its verdicts are not legal advice and create no attorney-client relationship — verify with qualified counsel before relying on them.