Twenty-six current and former Meta employees have sued the company, alleging that artificial intelligence-powered evaluation tools unfairly targeted workers with disabilities, medical conditions and those who took protected leave during recent layoffs.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Oakland, California, seeks to halt the dismissals while the employees pursue their claims through private arbitration.
According to the complaint, Meta relied on AI-assisted systems that assessed employees using productivity metrics and other workplace data when selecting workers for redundancy. The plaintiffs argue that those systems disproportionately disadvantaged employees who had taken medical or family leave.
Meta dismissed the allegations.
“Workforce management and organisational decisions were and are made by people, not AI,” a company spokesperson said, describing the claims as without merit.
The lawsuit is believed to be among the first in the United States to challenge the alleged use of AI systems in large-scale workforce reductions.
Meta laid off nearly 8,000 employees, about 10% of its workforce, in May as part of a restructuring aimed at supporting its growing investments in artificial intelligence. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has since indicated that no further company-wide layoffs are planned this year.
The anonymous plaintiffs accuse Meta of violating federal and state anti-discrimination laws protecting workers with disabilities, pregnant employees and those taking medical leave. They also allege the company failed to assess its AI systems for bias, contrary to recently adopted regulations in California and New York City.
Court filings claim Meta used several internal AI-assisted tools, including its “Metamate” large language model, an internal knowledge management system and productivity scores generated from workplace activity such as emails, browser usage, documents and communications, to rank employees during the layoff process.
The case is expected to test how employment laws apply to the growing use of artificial intelligence in workplace decision-making.
