Meta allegedly used AI tools to target employees on leave, lawsuit claims
Employees claim Meta used AI metrics to select workers on medical and parental leave for layoffs.
1Core allegation
26 current and former Meta employees allege the company used AI-powered systems to target workers who took medical, parental, or disability leave for termination. Plaintiffs claim these systems were used in the May layoffs of 8,000 employees, penalizing those unable to use AI tools while on protected leave.
2AI systems employed
Court documents state Meta utilized tools like the Metamate AI chatbot, AI usage dashboards, employee-trained 'second brain' agents, and activity monitoring data to score workers. Employees were categorized as 'AI Native,' 'AI First,' etc., with scores allegedly dropping during leave periods.
3Impact of leave time
The lawsuit claims Meta recorded lower productivity during leave as underperformance. One engineer cited how injury-related 'broken time' caused a poor rating, while another employee was allegedly warned that taking medical leave would 'definitely' result in layoff nomination. The system reportedly didn't adjust metrics for protected absences.
4Company's response
A Meta spokesperson called the claims 'without merit' and 'not based on facts,' emphasizing workforce decisions are made by people, not AI. The company acknowledged encouraging greater AI adoption among employees and tracking usage via internal dashboards, but denied AI determined layoffs.
5Employee monitoring controversy
The suit references Meta's now-paused program that installed software on US employees' computers to capture keystrokes/mouse movements as AI training data. Plaintiffs allege this monitoring also fed layoff decisions. The program was suspended in June after internal data leaks made the information widely accessible company-wide.
6Plaintiffs' demands
Employees seek to halt terminations pending arbitration, an independent audit of Meta's layoff process, and recalculation of selections excluding protected leave periods. The anonymous plaintiffs worked across multiple states including California, New York, and Washington in various roles before being laid off.