- Dozens of Meta employees sued, alleging AI selected them for layoffs.
- AI systems reportedly targeted workers who took protected, medical leaves.
- Meta denies claims, stating people made decisions, not AI tools.
Dozens of Meta employees have sued the social media company, alleging that it used artificial intelligence tools to identify workers for mass layoffs. The employees claim the AI systems targeted workers who had requested protected leave, maternity leave or disability accommodation.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, relates to Meta’s workforce reduction of about 8,000 employees earlier this year. Meta is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Employees Allege AI Selected Workers For Layoffs
According to the 71-page complaint, Meta relied on a “constellation of internal artificial intelligence systems”, including AI-generated performance ratings as well as keystroke and activity-monitoring data, to determine which employees would be laid off.
“Meta did not assemble the termination list through the considered judgment of managers who knew the work,” the complaint states. Instead, the 26 employees named in the lawsuit allege the company used AI systems “to score, rank and select employees for inclusion on the list”.
The plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary court order to prevent Meta from finalising the layoffs while the case proceeds. They are also seeking relief that could include reinstatement, back pay, lost equity, benefits and other damages.
Workers Claim AI Penalised Protected Leave
The lawsuit alleges that Meta’s AI tools collected data on employee performance, productivity and other workplace metrics. According to the complaint, those metrics were unavailable while employees were on medical or family leave and could be lower for workers with disabilities.
“The result was that employees who took protected leaves were disproportionately selected for layoff, based on scoring that not only failed to account for their protected leaves, but in effect penalized the employees for exercising their legal rights to these leaves,” the complaint states.
Among the plaintiffs is a scientist who was on approved pre-birth pregnancy leave and was notified of her layoff two days before giving birth. Another plaintiff, an engineer, alleges he received a “lowered rating” because of time taken off following an injury. A manager on medical leave said he was laid off 16 days after beginning his leave.
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Meta Rejects Allegations
A Meta spokesperson disputed the claims.
“These claims lack merit and are not based on facts,” the spokesperson said in an email to The Guardian. “Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI.”
AI Monitoring Programme Faces Scrutiny
The lawsuit states that Meta introduced its AI employee-monitoring programme earlier this year. According to the complaint, the system was designed to collect workers’ keystrokes, mouse activity, browser history, messages, emails and location data on company devices.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously said the programme was intended to help train the company’s AI systems using employee behaviour.
“The AI models learn from watching really smart people do things,” Zuckerberg said during an internal meeting, according to The Information. “The average intelligence of the people who are at this company is significantly higher than the average set of people that you can get to do tasks.”
The lawsuit alleges Meta introduced the programme through a “low-visibility internal post – made by an engineer rather than a senior leader”. It further claims that, on some teams, employees received neither a consent nor an acknowledgement prompt, and initially had no option to opt out.
Employee Backlash And Court Demands
The complaint says employee opposition to the monitoring programme intensified over the past few months, prompting Zuckerberg to announce in June that the programme had been paused. The decision followed a petition signed by more than 1,600 employees who argued that the programme violated their privacy.
The plaintiffs have asked the court to order an independent audit of Meta’s AI systems. Their lawyers argue the audit would clarify why the 26 employees, all of whom were on leave or had approved disability accommodations, were selected for layoffs.
“Meta deliberately kept the mechanics of its selection process secret from its employees,” the lawyers said in an emailed statement.
According to the lawyers, the plaintiffs remain Meta employees until July 22, when their terminations are scheduled to take effect. They have also asked the court to allow the plaintiffs to remain anonymous, citing concerns about retaliation, and to preserve their employment status while arbitration is pending.
“Once these separations are final, the harms are irreversible: employer-subsidized health coverage lost during pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and active medical treatment; time-bound leave rights extinguished; unvested equity forfeited; and immigration consequences triggered,” the lawyers said.
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