Meta's AI penalized protected leave in layoffs, according to lawsuit

Twenty-six former Meta employees sued the company alleging its AI-powered layoff tool systematically penalised workers on protected leave (parental, medical, bereavement), potentially violating employment discrimination law. This appears to be the first litigation against an employer for discriminatory AI in workforce reduction decisions. If you're building workforce management or HR automation software, your algorithm is now a liability. Meta's AI layoff tool just became the test case for whether employment discrimination law applies to code—and you need to audit your own systems before a plaintiff's lawyer does.