Overview
- A group of 26 current and former Meta employees filed a 71‑page federal complaint in Oakland alleging company systems used AI to score, rank and select workers for spring layoffs and that those systems disproportionately targeted people on medical, parental or disability leave.
- The suit names specific internal tools and data inputs, including an internal large‑language model called 'Metamate,' employee 'second‑brain' agents, keystroke and screen activity monitoring, AI token‑usage dashboards, and algorithmic performance rankings.
- Plaintiffs argue those metrics treated protected absences as reduced productivity and therefore had a disparate impact in violation of federal and state laws such as the FMLA, ADA and pregnancy discrimination statutes and are asking the court for a preliminary injunction and an independent audit.
- Meta has denied the claims, saying workforce and organizational decisions were made by people not AI, and the company previously paused an internal keystroke/screen monitoring program after employee backlash.
- If the court allows the case to proceed, it could shape legal limits on employer use of automated decision systems and affect workers who face immediate harms like loss of health coverage, unvested equity and reduced ability to seek new jobs.