Meta Accused of Using AI to Target Workers With Health Issues in Job Cuts

Twenty-six current and former employees have filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms, alleging the company relied on AI-assisted tools to determine which workers would be laid off, with the system allegedly placing employees with disabilities or those who had taken medical leave at a disadvantage.

The complaint, submitted to a federal court in Oakland, California, claims Meta evaluated employees using metrics such as productivity levels and AI tool usage while carrying out large-scale job cuts earlier this year. According to the plaintiffs, these measures unfairly affected workers who had reduced activity because of health conditions, pregnancy, or the need to care for family members.

The employees, who were informed in May that their positions would be eliminated effective July 22, are asking the court to temporarily halt the layoffs while their claims proceed through private arbitration. They argue that although Meta's employment agreements require most workplace disputes to be resolved individually through arbitration, they do not prevent workers from seeking immediate court intervention.

Meta has rejected the allegations. A company spokesperson stated that workforce and organizational decisions were made by human managers rather than artificial intelligence, describing the claims as unfounded. Legal experts say the case could become one of the first major lawsuits in the United States to directly challenge the alleged use of AI in workforce reduction decisions.

Meta announced plans to cut roughly 10% of its global workforce—around 8,000 jobs—as part of a broader restructuring focused on expanding its artificial intelligence capabilities. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has since indicated that the company does not anticipate additional company-wide layoffs this year.

The lawsuit alleges that Meta violated federal and state anti-discrimination laws by unfairly impacting employees with disabilities, those on medical leave, pregnant workers, and others protected under employment regulations. The plaintiffs also claim the company failed to properly assess its AI systems for potential bias, as required under recently introduced regulations in California and New York City. The 26 anonymous plaintiffs are based across six U.S. states, including California and New York, as well as Washington, D.C.

According to the court filing, Meta allegedly relied on several internal AI-supported systems to evaluate and rank employees for layoffs. These reportedly included "Metamate," the company's large language model assistant, an internally developed knowledge management tool that analyzed employee communications and documents, and productivity metrics generated from workplace activity such as keystrokes, screen usage, emails, and browser history.