Lawsuit claims Meta's layoff decisions were made by AI, not humans

The lawsuit alleged that Meta management did not take steps to adjust scores for employees who took leave or who requested reasonable accommodations for disabilities. “Meta did not neutralize those inputs for protected leave; did not exclude protected-leave-takers or accommodation-seekers from the selection cohort; and did not pause the system for the individualized, leave- and accommodation-neutral review that the law requires,” the complaint alleged. “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 penalized the employees for exercising their legal rights to these leaves.” The 26 plaintiffs requested leaves or disability accommodations in the 24 months before being selected for layoffs, the lawsuit said. The layoffs are not yet finalized, but employees are scheduled to start losing their jobs on July 22, the lawsuit said. The plaintiffs work for Meta in California, Illinois, Washington, New York, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Florida. They allege that Meta violated the US Family and Medical Leave Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. They also alleged violations of various laws imposed by states and the District of Columbia. For example, an update to California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act “forbids the use of an automated-decision system that produces disparate-impact discrimination on the basis of disability or sex, including pregnancy,” the lawsuit said. The lawsuit seeks an injunction requiring Meta to preserve each worker’s job and/or protected-leave status, and an independent audit to examine the layoff-selection process. The proposed audit would “examine the inputs, weights, and outputs of the selection process; determine whether protected-leave status, accommodation status, or any proxy was used as an input; recompute selection scores using leave- and accommodation-neutralized inputs; and identify any named Plaintiff whose selection cannot be justified on leave- and accommodation-neutral grounds.” Plaintiffs also want an order requiring Meta to preserve all data, models, and documents related to the layoffs “and the algorithmically assisted selection process.” Although there are 26 plaintiffs, the lawsuit is not a class action. The complaint said that Meta conditions employment on an arbitration agreement that waives the right to participate in class actions against the company. The plaintiffs want to go through arbitration individually, but say a court order is necessary to preserve their employment while that process unfolds. “Plaintiffs seek a preliminary injunction maintaining the status quo of their employment—preventing Meta from finalizing their separations, and from altering their compensation, benefits, equity vesting, or protected-leave status—pending an independent audit of the algorithmically assisted selection process and resolution of the merits of their claims in arbitration,” the lawsuit said.