26 Former Meta Employees Sue Over AI Used to Target Sick, Pregnant Workers for Layoffs

Twenty-six former Meta employees have sued the company, alleging it used artificial intelligence systems to select people with disabilities, on medical leave, and pregnant workers for layoffs. The lawsuit was filed Monday evening in federal court in Oakland, California, just days before the layoffs are set to take effect on July 22.

According to the complaint, Meta relied in part on productivity metrics and employees' AI token usage when selecting people for layoffs. That method of evaluation is alleged to have systematically disadvantaged people who had been away from work due to their own illness or family caregiving duties, regardless of the quality of the work they had previously done.

AI tools named in the lawsuit

The complaint names several internal systems said to have influenced the final layoff list. The first is Metamate, an internal large language model assistant used by Meta employees for everyday tasks. The second is a system described as a 'second brain,' trained on individual employees' communications and documents to build a profile of their work activity.

The third element is a productivity score calculated from data collected on work computers, including keystrokes, on-screen content, emails and browsing history. According to the plaintiffs, this metric effectively penalized people who, for health reasons, spent less time at their computers, even when the reason for their absence was legally protected.

Discrimination claims and lack of bias testing

The plaintiffs accuse Meta of violating federal and state laws that prohibit discrimination and retaliation against employees with disabilities, those on medical leave, or those who are pregnant. They also claim the company failed to test its AI systems for bias, despite recently adopted rules in California and New York that require such testing for AI tools used in hiring and workforce management.

The lawsuit is notable for combining two separate areas of law, traditional anti-discrimination statutes and newer state rules that require employers to audit AI systems used in personnel decisions. The plaintiffs filed anonymously, citing fear of further professional consequences.

Personnel management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI - Meta spokesperson

What happens next with the layoffs

A key element of the lawsuit is a request for a temporary court order that would block completion of the layoffs until the case is resolved through the private arbitration that Meta employees are bound to under their employment contracts. If the Oakland court grants the request before July 22, the company could be forced to hold off on laying off some of the 26 plaintiffs until the dispute is resolved.

A Meta spokesperson rejected the allegations, saying personnel decisions were made by people, not AI systems, and that the lawsuit's claims are baseless. The company has not disclosed details of how data from Metamate, the internal 'second brain,' and productivity scores were used in making final layoff decisions.

What it means beyond the US

The case arrives as more large tech companies, including in Poland, adopt AI tools to evaluate performance and plan workforce reductions. The lawsuit shows that using AI as just one of several factors in layoffs can still create legal liability if the system statistically harms legally protected groups, even without any intent to discriminate on the employer's part.

For Polish employers considering similar tools, this is a signal that automated productivity scoring based on digital activity monitoring could face similar legal scrutiny in the future, especially given the EU's AI Act and national data protection rules covering employee data, which impose growing transparency requirements on systems that support personnel decisions.

Sources: Meta Used AI to Target Workers With Medical Conditions for Layoffs, Lawsuit Claims (usnews.com), Meta employees sue over use of AI in workforce reduction (courthousenews.com), Meta used AI to target workers with medical conditions for layoffs, lawsuit claims (finance.yahoo.com)