A new lawsuit filed in federal court accuses Meta of leveraging AI-powered systems to penalize employees who took medical, parental, or disability leave, ultimately influencing the company’s recent layoffs. The complaint, brought by 26 current and former workers, claims Meta used internal AI tools and monitoring data to rank and score employees without accounting for their time away, resulting in lower performance ratings and higher likelihood of termination.
The plaintiffs argue that the ratings relied heavily on metrics impossible to maintain during protected leave, such as software development output, AI tool adoption, and activity tracked by internal monitoring programs. This approach allegedly conflated leave-related absences with underperformance, producing skewed evaluations that directly impacted layoffs during Meta’s downsizing of about 8,000 employees.
Central to the allegations are Meta’s AI-based workplace systems, including an internal chatbot called Metamate, AI dashboards that monitor usage, and “second-brain” agents designed to replicate aspects of employee work. These systems reportedly categorized employees under AI adoption labels like “AI Native,” “AI First,” and “AI Enabled,” with scores dropping significantly for those away on leave. The lawsuit states that these automated scores overshadowed human judgment by managers familiar with employee circumstances.
The case also highlights an internal data collection program that tracked keystrokes and mouse movements on employee computers to train AI models. Following employee protests over privacy concerns and an internal data leak, Meta paused this monitoring initiative. Plaintiffs contend that the data harvested through this program fed into the AI-driven layoff selection process.
Meta’s newly instituted performance system, Checkpoint, is mentioned in the suit as well. Launched this year, Checkpoint emphasizes outcome-based reviews and reportedly integrates AI adoption as a core metric, resulting in higher rewards for top-rated employees. According to the complaint, this system disproportionately disadvantaged those who had taken time off, contributing to their termination or lower bonus awards.
The lawsuit further notes instances where employees were laid off while on approved leave or soon after returning, with one engineer reporting that his manager attributed a poor rating to interruptions caused by “broken time.” Meta has denied the allegations, stating that organizational decisions were made by people rather than AI and dismissing the claims as unfounded.
This legal challenge emerges amid Meta’s broader push to increase AI use among employees and measure adoption through detailed internal dashboards and leaderboards—a trend mirrored by other major companies exploring AI integration in the workplace.