Meta is facing a lawsuit from dozens of former employees who allege the company used artificial intelligence systems to identify workers for mass layoffs, disproportionately affecting those who had taken maternity leave, medical leave or requested disability accommodations.
The case, filed Monday in federal court in Northern California, stems from Meta’s workforce reduction earlier this year that cut about 8,000 jobs.
Plaintiffs claim the company relied on “a constellation of internal AI systems” including performance ratings, keystroke monitoring and activity‑tracking data to generate termination lists, reports The Guardian.
“Meta did not assemble the termination list through the considered judgment of managers who knew the work,” the 71‑page complaint states. Instead, the 26 workers involved allege the company used automated scoring to rank and select employees for dismissal.
The lawsuit seeks a preliminary ruling to halt Meta from finalizing the layoffs while claims are pursued. Plaintiffs are also asking for reinstatement, back pay, lost equity, benefits and damages.
Concerns over AI decision‑making in workplaces have grown as regulators and states including California, Colorado and Illinois move to curb bias and protect workers from “automated decision systems.”
The complaint against Meta argues that employees on protected leave were penalized because productivity metrics dropped or disappeared during their absence, leading to disproportionate inclusion in layoff lists.
Examples cited include a scientist laid off two days before giving birth while on approved pregnancy leave, an engineer who said his rating was lowered after time off for an injury, and a manager dismissed 16 days into medical leave.
However, Meta has rejected the allegations. “These claims lack merit and are not based on facts,” a spokesperson said, adding that workforce decisions “were and are made by people, not AI.”
The lawsuit also highlights Meta’s rollout of an AI monitoring programme earlier this year, designed to track keystrokes, mouse activity, browser history, messages, emails and location data on company devices.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the system internally as a way to train AI models on employee behavior, saying: “The AI models learn from watching really smart people do things.”
According to the complaint, the programme was introduced quietly, with notice posted by an engineer rather than senior leadership. Some teams reportedly received no consent prompts and initially had no way to opt out.
