Former Meta staff sue over AI-driven layoff bias

The dispute centers on a series of staff reductions from May, when Meta moved to eliminate roughly 8,000 positions, or 10 percent of its workforce. According to the filing, the company relied on a "constellation" of automated systems—including the Metamate assistant and various AI-driven dashboards—to score and rank employees for the chopping block. The suit argues these tools systematically disadvantaged those on leave, as the algorithms did not adjust for periods of inactivity or protected status.

Meta has dismissed the allegations as baseless. Spokesperson Tracy Clayton stated that all workforce management decisions were handled by human managers rather than automated processes. The lawsuit now seeks to prove that the reliance on these internal tools violated federal and state protections against retaliation for taking legally mandated leave.