Twenty-six employees of Meta Platforms have filed a lawsuit in Oakland, California, federal court accusing the tech giant of using AI-powered software that disproportionately targeted people with disabilities or who took medical leave when it selected workers for mass layoffs. The complaint says Meta relied on productivity and AI token usage as it cut thousands of jobs earlier this year, and that those measures punished people who missed work because of medical conditions or to care for family members.
The workers say they were notified in May that their jobs would be eliminated starting on July 22. They’re asking the court for a preliminary ruling that would block Meta from finishing the layoffs while they pursue their claims in private arbitration. Meta’s agreements require employees to arbitrate workplace disputes individually, the lawsuit says, but those agreements do not apply to requests for temporary relief. That’s the narrow opening the workers are trying to force through the company’s legal machinery.
A Meta spokesperson on Tuesday rejected the claims. "Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI," the spokesperson said. The company’s line is simple enough. The workers’ complaint says the opposite, and the gap between those two statements is where the fight sits.
Who Gets Cut, Who Gets Protected
The lawsuit appears to be the first against a major U.S. company to challenge the alleged use of AI in conducting layoffs. Meta laid off 10% of its global workforce in May, or nearly 8,000 people, and was planning more job cuts later this year, Reuters had reported. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has since said that he does not expect any more company-wide layoffs this year. For the people whose jobs are on the chopping block, that reassurance comes after the axe was already swinging.
The changes are part of a far-reaching overhaul as the company increases its AI investments and centers AI agents in both its product offerings and its approach to work internally. In other words, the same machinery sold as the future of efficiency is now accused of helping decide who gets pushed out the door. The workers say that’s not neutral technology. It’s a system that can turn disability, medical leave and family care into liabilities.
The Human Cost of Corporate Scoring
The 26 plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit anonymously, are accusing Meta of violating federal and state laws that ban discrimination or retaliation against workers who have disabilities, take medical leave or are pregnant. They also claim that Meta failed to test its AI systems for bias in violation of recently adopted California and New York City laws. The complaint puts the burden back where it belongs: on the company that built the system, used it, and now says the system wasn’t the problem.
The plaintiffs come from six states, including California and New York, and the District of Columbia. According to the complaint, Meta used a number of internal AI-assisted systems to score and rank employees on a termination list. Those included "Metamate," a large language model assistant; an employee-trained "second brain" that tracked workers’ communications and documents; and a productivity score drawn from scanning keystrokes, screen content, emails and browser history, according to the lawsuit. That’s not some abstract algorithm floating in the cloud. It’s surveillance, sorting and discipline wrapped in corporate language.
The company’s own structure adds another layer of control. Meta’s agreements require employees to arbitrate workplace disputes individually, which can isolate workers and keep them from fighting together in open court. The plaintiffs are still seeking temporary relief, because once the layoffs land, the damage doesn’t wait for procedure.
The lawsuit says the layoffs were set in motion in May and would begin on July 22. Meta says the claims lack merit. The workers say the company used AI-assisted systems to rank them for termination. The court now has the file, and the people facing the cuts are trying to stop the machine before it finishes its work.