Dozens of Meta employees filed a federal lawsuit on Monday in the Northern District of California.
They allege the social media giant used artificial intelligence tools to target workers on protected medical or maternity leave for mass layoffs.
The plaintiffs, 26 workers, seek a preliminary court ruling to halt Meta from finalizing layoffs affecting about 8,000 employees.
The legal action claims Meta relied on automated metrics rather than managerial judgment to select employees for termination.
According to the complaint, Meta used a "constellation of internal artificial intelligence systems" including AI performance ratings and keystroke-monitoring data.
These tools were used to identify employees for termination.
"Meta did not assemble the termination list through the considered judgment of managers who knew the work," the complaint stated.
Instead, the company relied on automated tracking "to score, rank and select employees for inclusion on the list."
The lawsuit alleges that the metrics failed to account for workers taking family or medical 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 penalized the employees for exercising their legal rights to these leaves," the complaint alleged.
One plaintiff, an engineer, claimed his evaluation suffered due to approved time off, resulting in a "lowered rating."
The complaint also alleges the tracking software was implemented without proper workforce communication, via a "low-visibility internal post – made by an engineer rather than a senior leader."
The document states that staff had no choice in the monitoring program.
"On at least some teams, employees received no consent or acknowledgment prompt at all, and, at least initially, there was no way to opt out," the complaint alleged.
The legal challenge comes amid growing scrutiny from regulators regarding bias in algorithmic workplace tools. In response, Meta denied the allegations of algorithmic bias in its workforce reduction.
"These claims lack merit and are not based on facts," a Meta spokesperson said.
The representative emphasized that human personnel remained fully responsible for all termination decisions.
"Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI," the spokesperson said.
Earlier this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained the purpose behind the internal monitoring tool.
"The AI models learn from watching really smart people do things," he said, defending the program as a method to train AI systems on highly skilled staff behaviors.
Attorneys representing the 26 workers called for an immediate independent probe into the automated tool selection process.
"Meta deliberately kept the mechanics of its selection process secret from its employees," the lawyers said.
The legal team argued that letting the terminations proceed would cause irreparable harm to their clients.
"Once these separations are final, the harms are irreversible: employer-subsidized health coverage lost during pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and active medical treatment; time-bound leave rights extinguished; unvested equity forfeited; and immigration consequences triggered," the lawyers stated.
