Twenty-six Meta staff sued the social media big over allegations that the California firm used synthetic intelligence programs that focused staff on medical or household depart for layoffs.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal courtroom in California this week, accuses Meta of utilizing AI that features efficiency rankings and different metrics that didn’t exclude staff on depart or those that are disabled.
“The end result was that staff who took protected leaves have been disproportionately chosen for layoff, primarily based on scoring that not solely didn’t account for his or her protected leaves, however in impact penalized the staff for exercising their authorized rights to those leaves,” the lawsuit stated.
Meta laid off practically 8,000 staff, or roughly 10% of its world workforce, in Might as the corporate checked out offsetting the prices of AI investments. By allegedly concentrating on sure staff, the corporate violated federal and state legal guidelines that shield staff who’re pregnant, disabled or on depart, based on the lawsuit.
Meta denied the allegations.
“These claims lack benefit and should not primarily based on information,” a Meta spokesperson stated in a press release. “Workforce administration and organizational selections have been and are made by folks, not AI.”
The novel claims are the newest instance of how courts are being confronted with recent authorized questions because the considerations surrounding synthetic intelligence heighten.
Meta used AI to watch an worker’s keystrokes and exercise, sparking backlash from staff, based on the greater than 70-page lawsuit. The corporate additionally requested staff to coach a private AI agent known as a “second mind,” the lawsuit stated.
“At the least some senior leaders skilled second-brain brokers prematurely of happening depart, together with maternity depart, in order that Meta may proceed to attract on the worker’s output throughout the absence,” the lawsuit stated.
The employees, who’re nameless within the lawsuit, are present and former Meta staff from California, New York, Washington and different states.
One California employee, who was a supervisor at Meta for roughly 4 years, acquired excessive efficiency critiques however took authorized depart for bereavement, a well being situation and being pregnant in several years. She filed her intent to take maternity depart in April, and weeks later, she discovered she could be laid off, based on the lawsuit.
Different California Meta staff who obtained laid off included these on paternity depart and medical depart who have been disabled, the lawsuit stated.
Some staff on medical depart allege they acquired a decrease efficiency overview earlier than shedding their jobs.
The hurt allegedly achieved to the staff can’t be “undone by cash damages alone,” the lawsuit stated.
“Meta is taking away your entire objective of a protected depart — to heal, to look after household, and to have protected time away from work to take action,” the lawsuit stated.
The employees are in search of a courtroom order that may stop Meta from laying them off and altering their compensation and advantages as their authorized claims are resolved, and pending an “unbiased audit of the algorithmically assisted choice course of,” based on the lawsuit.
Different tech firms, together with Amazon, Oracle and Microsoft, have been conducting mass layoffs this yr.
From January to June, U.S. tech employers introduced 139,156 layoffs, up 83% from the identical interval in 2025, based on world outplacement and govt teaching agency Challenger, Grey & Christmas.
