A group of 26 employees has filed a lawsuit accusing Meta of using artificial intelligence systems to disproportionately select workers with disabilities or those on medical leave for redundancy, according to a recent report by Reuters.

The anonymous plaintiffs, who were told in May that their jobs would end from July 22, are asking a federal court in Oakland, California, to block the layoffs while their claims proceed in private arbitration, as per the report.

The lawsuit, lodged late on Monday, alleges that Meta relied on several internal AI-assisted tools to score and rank employees during this year’s mass workforce reduction. Among them are “Metamate,” a large language model assistant; a so-called “second brain” that tracked staff communications and documents; and a productivity score derived from monitoring keystrokes, screen content, emails, and browser history. The complaint contends that the use of such metrics, together with AI token usage data, systematically disadvantaged people who were absent for medical reasons or to care for family members.

Meta rejected the allegations on Tuesday. “Workforce management and organisational decisions were and are made by people, not AI,” a company spokesperson told Reuters, adding that the claims lack merit.

The plaintiffs claim Meta violated federal and state laws prohibiting discrimination and retaliation against workers with disabilities, those on medical leave, and pregnant employees. They also argue that the company failed to test its AI systems for bias, in breach of recently adopted regulations in California and New York City.

Meta laid off about 10% of its global workforce, or nearly 8,000 people, in May as part of a sweeping restructuring to increase investment in AI. The company has since said no further company-wide job cuts are expected this year, though the 26 employees behind the suit still face the loss of their positions unless a court intervenes. Their request for a preliminary injunction is now before the Oakland court.