Meta is facing a lawsuit filed by 26 employees who allege that the company's AI systems specifically singled out workers on medical leave for job cuts.

      **TL;DR** Twenty-six Meta employees have sued the company, claiming its AI scoring systems discriminated against workers on medical leave during layoffs in May. The lawsuit, filed in Oakland, California, accuses Meta of employing AI-driven methods that unfairly affected employees with disabilities or those who had taken medical leave during the mass layoffs, which involved around 8,000 job cuts starting on May 20. This suit is reportedly the first of its kind against a major US tech firm concerning AI use in layoffs.

      The 71-page complaint details various internal AI systems used by Meta to evaluate and select employees for termination. These systems included Metamate, an AI language model, alongside other monitoring tools, and performance ranking algorithms. The plaintiffs argue that the reliance on productivity metrics unfairly penalized workers who had taken time off, leaving them with fewer data points for assessment.

      The 26 anonymous plaintiffs, who share the commonality of having taken or requested protected leave in the last two years, hail from six different states, including California and New York. Their allegations cite violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and state-level leave protections.

      Additionally, the lawsuit claims that earlier in 2026, Meta implemented a monitoring program that tracked keystrokes, screen content, and other personal data from company devices. This initiative was reportedly disclosed through a low-profile internal communication rather than by a higher-up, with no consent requested from some teams. Data collected from this program was utilized to enhance AI tools, with employees being reassigned to a new engineering organization on a mandatory basis.

      The plaintiffs are seeking a temporary injunction to prevent their terminations, which are scheduled for July 22, as they pursue individual claims in arbitration. They further accuse Meta of not testing its AI systems for bias, contravening recently enacted California and New York City regulations governing AI in employment. The case has been assigned to Judge William Orrick in the Northern District of California.

      A spokesperson for Meta rejected the claims, asserting that decisions regarding workforce management are made by people rather than AI. This lawsuit emerges amid ongoing discussions in courts and regulatory bodies worldwide about the application of existing employment laws when companies employ algorithmic systems to guide staffing decisions.