By Mark Adams
As many employers are grappling with how to use AI in their workplaces, a case working its way through the courts serves as a reminder to not lose sight of vendors that use AI as well.
The case involves Workday and more specifically its talent acquisition and hiring tools. An applicant (by the name of Derek Mobley who is African American, over the age of 40 and also suffers from anxiety and depression), applied for over 100 positions with companies who were users of the Workday assessment tools (going as far back as 2017), and was denied employment in each instance.
On February 21, 2023, the applicant filed a suit in US District Court for the Northern District of California not against the hiring employers but rather against Workday; contending that Workday’s algorithmic decision-making tools discriminate against job applicants who are African American, over the age of forty, and/or disabled.
Workday sought to dismiss the case on the basis that they were not the employer. After numerous procedural issues, the court ultimately allowed Mobley to proceed with his case against Workday in July 2024. However, after that ruling, Mobley sought to enlarge the scope of his case in February 2025 by seeking to have it certified for a collective action on the age discrimination claim against Workday on behalf of other similarly situated individuals who had suffered similar harm to allow them to opt-in to have their claims heard collectively. In response to the request, Workday estimated that “hundreds of millions” of potential plaintiffs could opt in to have their claims heard in this case.
In granting the preliminary certification to proceed, the court ruled that Individuals over forty who were allegedly subjected to the discriminatory policy—i.e., they had an application scored, sorted, ranked, or screened by Workday’s AI—therefore have standing regardless of their qualifications, application volume, or rejection rate and may be included in the collective.”
[Editor’s Note: The case serves as a reminder that just because vendors are building AI technology into their platforms and systems, that doesn’t mean that those platforms and systems are free from risk. In this digital and data driven age, employers should put their consumer hats on and vet out these vendors and their products carefully to gain a deeper understanding of how they work and maintain some human oversight and audit their outcomes. We will keep you posted on this case as it continues towards a final resolution. ]