Meta sued over AI layoffs allegedly targeting employees on protected leave
Meta was recently sued by 26 employees over its May layoffs, accusing its AI-driven layoff system of failing to account for employees' protected leave during scoring and screening, resulting in these employees being disproportionately let go. The lawsuit claims this violates laws such as the ADA and FMLA, while Meta responded that the allegations lack factual basis.
A scientist was placed on a layoff list while on prenatal pregnancy leave.
A manager was demoted after medical leave, then selected for layoff within weeks of starting a second medical leave.
An engineer received a lower performance rating due to a "time gap" while unable to work because of a work-related injury.
These are among the allegations made by 26 current and former Meta employees in a lawsuit filed this month in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, related to Meta's layoffs in May.
The plaintiffs claim that Meta used AI-based systems to "disproportionately" select employees who had taken or applied for protected leave in the past two years for about 10% of the layoffs.
The lawsuit states: "Rather than using the careful judgment of managers who know employees' work to build the layoff list, Meta used a series of internal AI systems... to score, rank, and filter employees to decide whether to include them on the list."
The lawsuit alleges that these AI tools relied on inputs including "performance ratings, calibration scores, productivity and output metrics, 'AI-native' ratings, and AI token consumption"—metrics that "by design cannot be accumulated by employees on protected medical or family leave, nor by employees whose output is reduced due to disability."
The employees claim that Meta did not "neutralize" these inputs to account for protected leave, nor did it exclude employees who had taken protected leave or sought reasonable accommodations from layoff screening.
The lawsuit states: "As a result, employees who took protected leave were disproportionately selected for layoffs, with scores that not only failed to account for their protected leave but actually penalized employees for exercising these legal leave rights."
The employees say these actions violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
A Meta spokesperson responded that the allegations "lack legal merit and are not based on facts. Workforce management and organizational decisions have always been and continue to be made by people, not AI."
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs seek a preliminary injunction to prevent Meta from finalizing their separation arrangements.