Twenty-six former Meta employees have filed a lawsuit accusing the company of using AI-powered tools to disproportionately target workers with disabilities or those on medical leave during its recent mass layoffs. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Oakland, California, claims Meta relied on productivity metrics and AI token usage that penalized employees who took protected leave, violating federal and state anti-discrimination laws.
Meta announced in May plans to cut 10% of its global workforce, totaling nearly 8,000 employees. The plaintiffs allege the company's AI systems failed to account for approved absences, effectively ranking employees lower based on reduced output during leave. They also claim Meta used employee-monitoring data, including keystroke and mouse activity, to train its AI models without proper consent.
Meta has denied the allegations, stating that workforce decisions are made by people, not AI. The company has also been tracking AI adoption among employees through internal dashboards and leaderboards, raising concerns about surveillance and discrimination in performance evaluations.