Twenty-six former Meta employees filed suit in a California federal court this week, accusing the company of using AI-powered software that disproportionately targeted people with disabilities or who took medical leave when selecting workers for mass layoffs, Reuters reported.
Did Meta use biased AI to make layoff decisions?
According to Reuters, the complaint says Meta relied on factors such as productivity and AI token usage when it cut thousands of jobs this year. It claims this disadvantaged people who missed work because of medical conditions or to care for family members. Courthouse News Service reported that the anonymous plaintiffs work in roles across California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington state, and all took, requested or were approved for protected leave within the past 24 months.
In their 71-page complaint, per Courthouse News, the plaintiffs write that the termination list was assembled through “constellation of internal artificial-intelligence systems” and did not consider the “judgment of managers who knew the work.”
Read more: A lawsuit over AI notetakers should be on every HR leader’s radar
Meta’s response to the lawsuit
Meta denies the claims. “These claims lack merit and are not based on facts. Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement reported by Courthouse News.
Reuters reported that the plaintiffs accuse the company of violating federal and state laws banning discrimination or retaliation against workers who have disabilities, take medical leave or are pregnant, and claim Meta failed to test its AI systems for bias in violation of recently adopted California and New York City laws.
The plaintiffs were notified in May that their jobs would be eliminated starting July 22, and they are seeking a preliminary ruling blocking Meta from completing the layoffs while they pursue claims in private arbitration. The workers say Meta’s agreements require them to arbitrate their claims individually, but argue those agreements don’t prevent a court from pausing the layoffs while arbitration proceeds, according to reports.
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