‘The claims in the suit are false’: Workday hits back amid lawsuit claiming AI recruitment discrimination
Is AI hiring discriminatory? A California judge has given the go-ahead for a class action suit against Workday
Three years ago, a Californian man claimed that he'd been rejected hundreds of times by Workday's AI-driven HR system – now a judge has ruled that a class action based on the complaint will be heard in court.
US District Judge Rita Lin has ruled that Workday must face the claims brought against it, which includes claims that the company's AI-based candidate screening system discriminated on the grounds of age, race, and other protected characteristics.
With the case set to proceed, this makes it the first to consider the impact of letting AI-powered software make decisions on job candidates – a significant case given the rise of recruitment.
Indeed, a report from HireVue suggests seven-in-ten companies are using AI in HR and recruitment processes. The shift to AI hiring isn't popular, either, with two-thirds of Americans telling Pew that they didn't want to apply for a job via AI.
A spokesperson for Workday told ITPro the “claims in the suit are false” and dismissed claims that AI recruiting tools make hiring decisions.
“Workday’s AI recruiting tools don’t make hiring decisions in California or anywhere else,” the spokesperson said. “Our customers maintain full control of their hiring process and our tools are designed with human oversight at their core.”
Workday added that its technology “looks only at job qualifications, not protected traits like race, age, or disability”.
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“We rigorously test our products as part of our Responsible AI program to confirm our tools do not harm protected groups.”
Workday case considerations
Lin ruled that anti-discrimination laws do indeed apply when Workday's software is used outside of California, where the company is based and where the claim was filed.
Workday's lawyers had argued that "it makes no sense for a Texas employer with a Texas applicant who will perform work in Texas," but Lin disagreed.
Lin also refused to drop a claim alleging that the software filters out candidates using "proxy indicators", including gaps in employment history, which could impact those with disabilities or illnesses.
One claim was dismissed, however. This sought to include discrimination against Asian Americans in the suit, on the grounds that proper procedure wasn't followed.
History of the case
In 2023, Derek Mobley first sued Workday claiming that he had been rejected by the company's software, which is used by other companies to sift through candidates, between 80 and 100 times.
Mobley believed that the Workday pre-selection system was discriminating against him because he is a black American, over 40 and suffers disabilities. At the time, Workday said the lawsuit was "without merit."
Workday attempted to have the case thrown out in 2024, but Judge Lin dismissed those challenges, ruling that the company wasn't an employment agency but could for the case be considered an employer.
She dismissed claims that the discrimination was intentional. At the time, Workday said it was confident that the remaining allegations would be "easily refuted."
Earlier this year, Mobley was joined by four other would-be candidates, with the judge ruling they could be considered together as a class action.
One of the new plaintiffs, Jill Hughes, said she submitted hundreds of applications that were rejected, with some responses saying she didn't meet the job's minimum requirement, when she actually did.
The AI recruitment conundrum
With the case set to go ahead, it could reveal much sought after details about how AI is being used in recruitment and how it influences who is being hired – and not.
The case comes as AI has overrun recruitment, with companies using it to power everything from sifting through CVs to conducting interviews, while would-be candidates use AI to find open roles, apply automatically, and boost their responses in interviews.
This has created a situation where AI is essentially talking to AI in order to hire a human for a job. Anthropic raised eyebrows last year when it told candidates not to use AI when applying, for example.
Workday isn't the first company to be caught out by the risks of using AI for recruitment. Back in 2018, Amazon was forced to pull an AI tool it was testing for recruitment after it became clear the system was methodically filtering out CVs submitted by women.
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Freelance journalist Nicole Kobie first started writing for ITPro in 2007, with bylines in New Scientist, Wired, PC Pro and many more.
Nicole the author of a book about the history of technology, The Long History of the Future.
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