The claims against Meta

The complaint states that, on May 20, 2026, Meta began notifying roughly 10% of its workforce (around 8,000 employees) that they had been selected for termination. The company also announced that several thousand more would be reassigned to new AI initiatives. But this came even as Meta reported record revenues in Q1 2026 ($56. 31 billion, a 33% year-over-year increase), and pledged to spend upwards of $100 billion on AI this year. In addition to questioning the need for staff cuts, the filing alleges that Meta used a “constellation” of internal AI systems to score, rank, and select employees for termination.

These tools included Meta’s internal AI coworker, “Metamate,” employee-trained “second-brain” agents that replicated their output, algorithms tracking keystrokes and other digital activity, and AI token usage dashboards. “Meta did not assemble the termination list through the considered judgment of managers who knew the work,” the complaint claims. The 26 plaintiffs, all current or former employees, requested, took, or were approved for “statutorily protected” leave within 24 months of the workforce reduction, and claim they were “disproportionately selected” for layoff based on scoring that essentially penalized them for exercising their legal right to take leave. These practices are prohibited by federal and state law; The US Family and Medical Leave Act, for one, prohibits the use of protected leave as a “negative factor” in employment decisions. Further, the plaintiffs allege that Meta violated the US Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act that requires employers with 100 or more employees to provide written notice 60 calendar days in advance of mass layoffs.