Former Meta workers sue over alleged AI bias in layoffs
Twenty-six ex-employees allege Meta’s internal AI tools unfairly ranked workers on parental or medical leave for dismissal.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
2 min read
Twenty-six former Meta employees have sued the company, alleging it used internal AI tools in a layoff process that unfairly selected workers who had taken parental or medical leave. The case matters because it challenges how automated workplace scoring systems are used when companies decide who loses a job.
According to Reuters, the former employees claim Meta relied on performance data gathered by a group of internal AI systems to decide which workers would be dismissed. The lawsuit says the company did not exclude employees on protected leave from the ranking process.
The complaint alleges that workers who had taken parental or medical leave were more likely to be chosen for layoffs because the scoring system did not account for their absence. The former employees say the system effectively counted protected leave against them when Meta assessed performance.
What the lawsuit alleges
The lawsuit describes Meta’s internal tools as a “constellation” of AI systems used to gather and evaluate performance information. The former employees allege those systems produced rankings that shaped layoff decisions.
The central claim is that Meta used those rankings without making adjustments for workers who were away from work for legally protected reasons. According to the complaint, that meant employees on medical or parental leave could appear weaker in performance data even if their time away should not have been treated as a negative factor.
The former workers say the result was a layoff process that disproportionately affected employees who had taken protected leave. Reuters reported that the lawsuit frames the alleged harm as the product of AI-assisted scoring that failed to separate legitimate absences from performance concerns.
Why the case focuses on AI
The allegations center on how workplace data was collected and used, rather than on a single manager’s decision. The former employees claim Meta’s AI systems helped create the performance rankings that guided termination choices.
That focus could make the lawsuit part of a broader fight over automated decision-making at work. The complaint, as described by Reuters, argues that Meta’s tools did not properly account for protected leave before employees were ranked for layoffs.
The lawsuit does not claim only that layoffs occurred while some employees were on leave. It alleges that Meta’s own scoring process treated those employees unfairly because it failed to adjust for parental or medical absences before workers were compared with one another.
Meta is accused in the complaint of using those rankings to select workers for dismissal. The former employees are seeking to hold the company responsible for what they describe as biased AI-assisted layoff targeting.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.