Workday ‘ageism’ class action overview:
- Who: A California federal judge certified a class action lawsuit filed by Derek L. Mobley against Workday Inc.
- Why: Mobley argues Workday uses an applicant screening process that disproportionately disqualifies people over the age of 40.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was certified in California federal court.
A California federal judge has certified a class action lawsuit filed against Workday over claims it uses a proprietary screening process for job applicants that disproportionately disqualifies applicants over the age of 40.
Plaintiff Derek L. Mobley and other plaintiffs claim they all submitted hundreds of employment applications to prospective employers at an URL ending with “@myworkday.com,” and that each time their employment application was rejected, sometimes within minutes.
Mobley and the group asked the California federal court to certify the proposed class under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).
Mobley and the group argue that, since Workday is in charge of the screening process, that it is reasonable to attribute any “systematic disparate impact” in the scoring of applicants to its policy of using algorithmic decision making tools.
“This causal connection is unsurprising: algorithmic decision-making tools have been known to cause disparate impact in scoring applications,” the Workday class action states.
Plaintiffs claim negative impacts due to alleged Workday discrimination
Mobley and the group claim applicants over the age of 40 are more likely to be denied jobs, due to their applications allegedly being more likely to be flagged for rejection.
“As a result, those over 40 experience significantly greater rates of rejection for employment which negatively impacts their career prospects, earnings, and quality of life,” the Workday class action states.
Mobley and the group argued that since they were all allegedly denied employment because of Workday’s algorithmic decision-making tools and, therefore, as a group of individuals they were victims of a “common policy or practice.”
The plaintiffs request an award of decelary, injunctive relief and “objectively-based” back pay for themselves and all class members.
In other discrimination allegations, a former IBM employee filed a class action last year over claims the company discriminated against him as a white man and unlawfully terminated him.
Have you been discriminated against by Workday’s job application screening process? Let us know in the comments.
The plaintiffs are represented by Lee D. Winston and Roderick T. Cooks of Winston Cooks, LLC, Jay Greene of Greene Estate, Probate, and Elder Law Firm and Robert L. Wiggins, Jr. of Wiggins Childs Pantazis Fisher & Goldfarb, LLC.
The Workday discrimination class action lawsuit is Mobley, et al. v. Workday Inc., Case No. 3:23-cv-00770, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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76 thoughts onJudge certifies Workday class action over alleged age-based job rejects
How can I be included? I have tons of regection emails from using workday
I am over 50 years old and have been forced to use the Workday app in order to apply for many companies – mostly pharma and biotech – over the past 2 years which has resulted in zero interviews. From the very beginning of having to use Workday, I felt the app was nothing more than a discriminatory data mining gatekeeper platform app used by corporate America to allow companies to sift out people by gender and any reported disability. Is there a way to segment the Workday data to show if resumes are trashed after an individual has checked the disability box? Is there a list of companies that use Workday to exclude older applicants with a history of any disability? Unfortunately, I shot myself in the foot by honestly answering ‘yes’ after a hospitalization and feel was successfully excluded from the marketplace since – how do I know this? After applying through Workday on LinkedIn, I would get an rejection email within 1-2 days. It would be interesting to understand the contractual relationship between Workday and LinkedIn to exclude middle aged individuals – especially those who answered ‘yes’ to the disability question.
Workday is insidious. I am a senior journalist with extensive global and national experience. But I am certain that WorkDay sniffs out my age and rejects me.
How do I join this? I’ve applied for thousands of jobs on Workday and I have never gotten a reply from any company using them. I am 58 and I’m sure I get blacklisted because of my age and experience.
I have been denied when they see I’m 58 yo. I have over 25 years of Administrative experience. Apparently that makes me too old.
Please add me
I have been age discriminated via Workday.
Include me. I have applied using the workday site and got a rejection email 2 minutes later and before the application submitted confirmation email. I have applied over 40 times using workday and have been almost immediately rejected even though I meet every requirement for the job