Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) has been sued by some employees who claim the company's AI-assisted systems disproportionately affected workers with disabilities and those who took protected medical or family leave during its latest layoffs, allegations the company has denied.
The lawsuit was filed by 26 employees late Monday in the U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of California, Oakland division, with the plaintiffs seeking to halt the layoffs while their claims proceed.
Lawsuit Challenges AI-Assisted Layoffs "Meta did not assemble the termination list through the considered judgment of managers who knew the work," the 71-page complaint states.
Instead, the plaintiffs allege the company relied on a range of AI-assisted systems to score, rank and select employees for layoffs, including its 'Metamate' large language model assistant, employee-trained 'second brain' agents, AI token-usage dashboards and algorithmic performance-ranking tools.
