AI Bias in Hiring Lawsuit

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What’s up, Office Partiers?! Happy Tuesday. Here are the top workforce news stories so far this week ⬇️

PARTY PLAN 🎉

👨‍⚖️ AI bias in hiring lawsuit

❌ How many federal worker resignations would be a lot?

But first, MEMES!

MEME OF THE DAY

AI

Class-action lawsuit against workday for AI bias in hiring process

Workday just laid off 8.5% of their entire workforce. And now they may have an even bigger problem on their hands.

An applicant alleging that Workday’s AI tools are discriminatory asked a judge on Thursday to approve a nationwide class of potential plaintiffs. The individual and other opt-in plaintiffs said they received hundreds of quick rejections from roles advertised through Workday, including some during hours at which it would be unlikely for people to be working.

Plaintiffs attributed the rejections to their age and asked the court to certify a class of all individuals aged 40 and over who were denied employment recommendations through Workday’s job application platform since September of 2020.

Workday previously told the court it could not be liable for discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act because it was functioning as a vendor, not an employer. The judge, however, said the company acts as an agent of employers and allowed parts of the lawsuit to move forward.

This one could get spicy!

DOGE

How many federal worker resignations would be a lot?

65,000 federal employees have submitted resignations as part of Elon Musk’s “fork in the road” offer. But 150,000 voluntarily leave every year anyway.

When the federal Office of Personnel Management first proposed a “deferred resignation” package to induce federal workers to quit last week, Elon Musk circulated an estimate that the offer could lure 5 to 10 percent of the government’s work force to leave. So far, that looks like a bit of an overshoot considering there are 2.3 million federal workers eligible for the resignation package. Military, postal service, and other “essential” roles don’t get the option.

In addition to workers who leave the government to retire or simply to quit, about another 50,000 to 60,000 are terminated every year for disciplinary or performance reasons, or because their appointments or funds expired. A small number — around 3,400 — die each year while employed by the government. All these departures are typically replaced by about 240,000 hires each year.

President Trump and Mr. Musk are also aiming to reduce the work force by squeezing this second group — new employees — through a hiring freeze for large portions of federal workers. In terms of reducing total head count, the hiring freeze could matter more than encouraging resignations.

So far, voluntary resignations have accounted for about 5 months of the normal turnover in the federal government. Many of those employees may have left this year anyway. Time will tell if DOGE is really able to accomplish their stated mission of shrinking the government!

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