Lawsuit Notice Authorized Over Workday's AI Hiring Tool

- The lead plaintiff, Derek Mobley, alleges he applied for over 100 positions at companies using Workday's screening tools and was rejected every time. The lawsuit was originally filed in February 2023, with initial claims covering race and disability discrimination in addition to age. - The legal basis for the suit is "disparate impact," which argues that Workday's algorithms disproportionately screened out applicants over 40, even if the discrimination was not intentional. The class action is certified under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). - Workday argued it should not be a defendant because it is a software vendor, not the employer making hiring decisions. However, the court ruled the case could proceed, finding that Workday could be held liable as an "agent" of the employers using its platform. - The class action notice is for all individuals aged 40 and over who applied for jobs through Workday's platform from September 24, 2020, to the present and were subsequently denied an employment recommendation. - During the relevant period covered by the lawsuit, Workday stated in court filings that its software tools were used to reject 1.1 billion applications, indicating the potential class size could be enormous. - The specific tools under scrutiny include the "Candidate Skills Match," which scores an applicant's skills against a job posting, and the "Workday Assessment Connector," which allegedly uses machine learning that can decrease recommendations for candidates from protected classes. - This is not the first major lawsuit concerning AI and age discrimination; in 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) settled a case with iTutorGroup over software that allegedly automatically rejected female applicants over 55 and male applicants over 60.