A group of Meta employees is suing the social-media company over how it carried out layoffs this spring, alleging that it used AI that disproportionately cut workers with disabilities or on protected leave.

一群Meta员工正在起诉这家社交媒体公司，指控其今年春季实施裁员的方式存在问题，称该公司利用人工智能系统，不成比例地裁减了残障员工或正在受保护休假期间的员工。

The federal lawsuit, filed this week in the Northern District of California, alleges that when Meta began laying off 8,000 employees—or roughly 10% of its workforce in May—it relied on a "constellation of internal artificial-intelligence systems" to create a termination list.

本周向加利福尼亚北区联邦地区法院提起的这起诉讼称，当Meta于今年5月开始裁减8000名员工（约占其员工总数的10%）时，该公司依赖“一系列内部人工智能系统”来制定解雇名单。

The lawsuit claims that AI used metrics such as productivity and AI-token use to determine layoffs, and so targeted employees who had missed work because of medical conditions or other leave, violating discrimination laws in the process.

诉讼称，人工智能系统使用了生产效率、AI代币使用量等指标来决定裁员人选，因此将那些因病或其他休假而缺勤的员工纳入了裁员目标，在此过程中违反了反歧视法律。

The AI tools "draw on inputs—performance ratings, calibration scores, productivity and output metrics, 'AI-native' ratings, and AI-token consumption—that, by design, cannot be accumulated by an employee who is on protected medical or family leave, or whose output is reduced by a disability," the lawsuit states.

诉状中写道，这些人工智能工具“所依据的输入数据包括绩效评级、校准分数、生产效率和产出指标、‘AI原生’评级以及AI代币消耗量——而这些指标，从设计上讲，是一名处于受保护病假或家事休假期间的员工，或因残障而导致产出减少的员工所无法积累的”。

A Meta spokesman rejected the allegations and said workforce-management decisions were made by people, not AI. "These claims lack merit and are not based on facts," he said.

Meta的一位发言人驳斥了这些指控，并表示劳动力管理的决策是由人做出的，而非人工智能。 他说：“这些主张缺乏依据，不符合事实。”

The lawsuit is one of the first in the U.S. to scrutinize the potential role of AI in determining layoffs. It also raises questions about the extent to which workers are shielded from potential cuts while on legally protected leave.

这起诉讼是美国首批审视人工智能在裁员决策中潜在作用的案件之一。 它同时也引发了一个问题：员工在受法律保护的休假期间，在多大程度上能免于被裁员。

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are 26 current and former Meta employees, all of whom were notified they would be laid off. They had either taken or requested leave or asked for disability-related accommodation in the months before.

本案的原告是26名现任及前任Meta员工，他们均收到了被裁员的通知。 这些原告在此前几个月内，要么已经休假或申请过休假，要么曾请求过与残障相关的便利安排。

The lawsuit says that one plaintiff was on preapproved pregnancy leave, and was told she was being laid off two days before giving birth. Another was on medical leave for a "serious health condition," the lawsuit claims.

诉讼称，其中一名原告当时正处于预先批准的孕假期间，而在预产期的前两天，她被告知自己被裁掉了。 诉讼还称，另一名原告当时正因“严重健康状况”而休病假。

The plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction to maintain the status quo of their employment pending arbitration, and to prevent Meta from completing their separations.

原告方正在寻求一项初步禁令，以在仲裁程序进行期间维持其雇佣关系的现状，并阻止Meta完成对其的解雇手续。

A leave of absence doesn't automatically safeguard someone's job, employment lawyers say, though companies also can't single out those on a protected leave.

就业律师表示，休假本身并不能自动保住某人的工作，不过公司也不能专门挑出那些处于受保护休假期间的员工来进行裁员。

"It's not a magic bullet," said Jeffrey M. Hirsch, a professor of law at the University of North Carolina who studies employment issues. "On the other hand, it does mean if your employer is picking and choosing who gets laid off, they can't say that I'm annoyed so-and-so keeps taking FMLA leave," he added, referring to the Family and Medical Leave Act.

北卡罗来纳大学研究就业问题的法学教授杰弗里·M·赫希表示：“这不是一颗万能子弹。 但另一方面，这确实意味着，如果你的雇主在挑选谁被裁掉，他们不能说我烦某某老是休《家事与医疗休假法》假期。”赫希补充说，该法案指的是美国的《家事与医疗休假法》。

Hirsch said the lawsuit showed how the alleged use of new AI tools could be exposing companies to new legal risks.

赫希表示，这起诉讼表明，据称使用新的人工智能工具可能会让企业面临新的法律风险。

The lawsuit also touches on a bigger question that has consumed white-collar employees for years: How exactly do companies choose who to include in a layoff? Inside many companies, divisional leaders and department heads often decide who should be eliminated, human-resources executives say, but creating a termination list is often messy and chaotic.

这起诉讼还触及了一个困扰白领员工多年的更大问题：公司究竟是如何选择裁员人选的？ 人力资源高管表示，在许多公司内部，通常由部门领导和部门主管决定谁该被裁掉，但制定解雇名单的过程往往杂乱无章且混乱不堪。

Meta announced the layoffs as part of a broad effort to reimagine its workforce and become more nimble to compete with AI-native startups. In May, CEO Mark Zuckerberg thanked laid off employees for their contributions and called AI "the most consequential technology of our lifetimes."

Meta宣布此次裁员是其全面重塑员工队伍、提升灵活性以与AI原生初创公司竞争的更广泛努力的一部分。 今年5月，首席执行官马克·扎克伯格感谢了被裁员工所做的贡献，并称人工智能是“我们一生中最重要的技术”。

The lawsuit alleges that Meta used a range of AI-assisted systems to score, rank and select employees to include on its layoff list. Those included AI agents that "ingest each employee's communications and documents to replicate the employee's output," the lawsuit claims, along with productivity-monitoring tools and factors such as each employee's rolling 12-month performance rating.

诉讼称，Meta使用了一系列人工智能辅助系统来对员工进行评分、排名和筛选，以确定裁员名单。 诉讼称，这些系统包括能够“摄取每位员工的通讯记录和文件，以复制该员工产出”的人工智能代理，此外还包括生产效率监控工具，以及每位员工滚动12个月的绩效评级等因素。