Key facts
- 26 former Meta employees have filed a lawsuit against the company.
- The lawsuit alleges Meta used AI systems to target employees on medical, parental, or family leave for layoffs.
- The employees claim Meta's AI-driven performance metrics did not account for authorized absences, leading to disproportionate dismissals of protected individuals.
- Meta denies the allegations, stating that human decisions, not AI, drove workforce management.
- The suit cites violations of federal and state laws, including the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
A lawsuit has been filed by 26 former Meta employees who allege the company utilized artificial intelligence systems to disproportionately target individuals on medical, parental, or family leave for layoffs.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Oakland, California, claims Meta employed AI tools, keystroke monitoring, and performance classifications to identify employees for dismissal. The plaintiffs assert that the company's algorithms did not account for authorized absences, such as medical or family leave, leading to a selection process that unfairly impacted protected workers.
According to the complaint, individuals on medical or family leave, or whose productivity was reduced due to a disability, were unable to meet many of the performance metrics used by the AI. The suit contends that Meta failed to pause the system for individual reviews that would consider leave and accommodations, as required by law.
Meta has denied the allegations, stating in a release that "claims lack merit and are not based in fact." The company asserted that "workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not by an AI."
The lawsuit highlights the concept of "disparate impact" liability, a civil rights principle that prohibits seemingly neutral policies from having a disproportionately negative effect on protected classes of workers. The plaintiffs argue that Meta's algorithm-assisted selection process systematically registered absences as lower performance, disproportionately affecting women who take parental or caregiving leave.
This legal action comes as the Trump administration had previously directed federal agencies to deprioritize the enforcement of disparate impact liability, arguing it undermines meritocracy. However, the lawsuit against Meta underscores that companies may still face such litigation, particularly in the era of AI, and that state laws can also prohibit disparate impact discrimination.