26 Employees Sue Meta Over Alleged AI Driven Layoffs Targeting Workers On Leave

Meta insists humans, not machines, decide who gets fired. Twenty six employees beg to differ, and they have filed a federal lawsuit in Oakland, California, to prove it. The complaint alleges the company's much hyped artificial intelligence systems, including its Metamate assistant and a keystroke tracking "second brain," quietly did the dirty work of selecting employees on medical, parental and family leave for mass layoffs, an irony rich twist for a company busy rebranding itself as AI first .

The plaintiffs sit among the 8,000 employees, roughly 10 percent of Meta's workforce, marked for elimination since May. Their sin, apparently, was daring to give birth, recover from surgery, or care for a dying relative while the algorithm was watching. One scientist learned her role was gone while on approved maternity leave, a day before her water broke. Another employee says his manager floated a tidy little deal, a glowing performance letter in exchange for quietly dropping his leave request, and made sure never to put that offer in writing. Subtle, Meta. Very subtle.

The lawsuit notes that in June, Meta reportedly paused its scoring initiative after an internal security lapse exposed employees' private conversations and performance data companywide, prompting over 1,000 workers to sign a petition against the program. Apparently the system was flawed enough to embarrass Meta internally, yet somehow still trustworthy enough to decide who loses their health coverage , unvested equity and, in some cases, immigration status.

Lawyers argue the scoring process penalised absences baked into pregnancy and caregiving leave, disproportionately hurting women, a claim rooted in the decades old legal doctrine of disparate impact discrimination under Title VII, a doctrine the current administration has been actively trying to defang. The plaintiffs are not even asking for money yet, just a preliminary injunction to keep their jobs while the matter heads to arbitration, since separations are otherwise set to begin July 22.

Meta, for its part, calls the allegations baseless, insisting workforce decisions were "made by people, not AI." Whether a jury finds that claim as convincing as Meta's press office does remains to be seen. Until then, the company that built its empire on knowing everything about its users appears to have developed a curious blind spot about knowing anything about maternity leave .