Meta Used AI to Lay Off Employees Who Took Maternity and Disability Leave, Lawsuit Claims
Meta Used AI to Lay Off Employees Who Took Maternity and Disability Leave, Lawsuit Claims
Text: Izzy Copestake
Earlier this year, Meta reduced its workforce by 8,000. 350 layoffs were made in Ireland alone.
Dozens of Meta employees are suing the company over claims that it used AI to tag workers in mass layoffs. The lawsuit, filed in California, also claims that the AI tools targeted those who had taken maternity or disability leave. The complaint also claims that keystroke data and AI performance ratings were used to determine who to lay off.
Earlier this year, Meta reduced its workforce by 8,000. 350 layoffs were made in Ireland alone.
“Meta did not assemble the termination list through the considered judgment of managers who knew the work,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit claims that when AI was being used to monitor productivity and performance in the workplace, it didn’t properly adjust for when workers were off on protected leave, such as maternity or disability leave.
“The result was that employees who took protected leaves were disproportionately selected for layoff, based on scoring that not only failed to account for their protected leaves, but in effect penalised the employees for exercising their legal rights to these leaves,” the complaint reads.
Employee backlash at Meta has been intensifying over the last few months. This prompted Zuckerberg to pause the program in June after more than 1,600 employees signed a petition claiming the programme violated their privacy rights.
In an emailed statement, the lawyers for the plaintiffs said that “Meta deliberately kept the mechanics of its selection process secret from its employees.” The lawyers have also requested that the court immediately approve an independent audit of Meta’s AI tools, saying that this would provide clarification on why the workers were let go.
Meta has said in a statement that the claims “lack merit and are not based on facts. Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI.”
While the lawsuit is ongoing, the plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary court ruling to prevent Meta from going further with the layoffs while they pursue relief such as back pay, reinstatement, lost equity, and benefits.
