Twenty-six former Meta employees have filed a lawsuit accusing the company of using AI-assisted systems and productivity data to select employees for layoffs, alleging that the process unfairly affected employees with disabilities, medical leave, or other protected circumstances.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Oakland, California, challenges Meta’s decision to cut thousands of jobs earlier this year.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to temporarily halt the planned layoffs while they pursue their claims through private arbitration.
Employees were informed in May that their roles would end from July 22nd. Meta claims it relied on internal systems to evaluate employee performance, including productivity scores and measurements related to the use of AI tools.
According to the complaint, Meta used multiple internal tools to rank employees during the selection process. These include Metamate, the company’s large-scale language modeling assistant, an employee-trained “second brain” system that analyzes workplace communications and documents, and productivity scores based on data such as email, browser activity, screen content, and keystrokes.
Plaintiffs also alleged that Meta tracks employees’ use of AI tools through a token usage dashboard, and that these measures put workers who took medical, parental, or disability leave at a disadvantage.
The lawsuit alleges that Meta’s approach violates U.S. laws that protect workers from discrimination, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act.
The employees also alleged that Meta failed to adequately test its AI systems for bias, violating recently introduced AI regulations in California and New York City.
Mr. Mehta rejected the charges. A company spokesperson said the allegations were baseless and denied that an AI system made the decision to cut jobs.
“Employee management and organizational decision-making has been and continues to be done by humans, not AI,” the spokesperson said.
Meta cut its global workforce by about 10% in May, cutting nearly 8,000 jobs as part of a restructuring program. The company is increasing its spending on artificial intelligence, putting AI development at the center of its future plans.
The case is one of the first major U.S. legal challenges to question the role of AI in workforce reduction. The case could impact how companies use automated tools to make hiring decisions, especially as companies increasingly rely on data-driven systems to evaluate employees.
The plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit anonymously, are from six states and Washington, D.C. They argue that existing workplace protections should also apply when companies use AI systems to make decisions that affect employees’ careers.
