Union alleges Facebook helped employers show age bias

A proposed class action lawsuit alleging Facebook’s ad placement tools facilitate discrimination against older jobseekers has been expanded to identify additional companies, further widening the latest front in claims that candidates are being filtered out by gender, geography, race and age.

“When Facebook’s own algorithm disproportionately directs ads to younger workers at the exclusion of older workers, Facebook and the advertisers who are using Facebook as an agent to send their advertisements are engaging in disparate treatment,” a communications union alleged in the amended complaint — citing a legal test for employment discriminationfiled Tuesday in San Francisco federal court. The union added claims under California’s fair employment and unfair competition statutes to the suit, which was initially filed in December.

The Communications Workers of America is suing on behalf of union members and other job seekers who allegedly missed out on employment opportunities because companies used Facebook’s ad tools to target people of other ages. The original filing named defendants are Amazon.com, Cox Media Group, Cox Communications and T-Mobile, as well as what the union estimates to be hundreds of employers and employment agencies that used Facebook tools to filter out older job hunters when filling positions. The amended filing adds Ikea and Enterprise Rent-A-Car to its list of companies that allegedly used the tools to filter by age.

In a December statement, Facebook Vice President of Advertisements Rob Goldman said “Facebook tailors our employment ads by audience” and “we completely reject the allegation that these advertisements are discriminatory.” Regarding other companies, he said the company helps educate advertisers about their legal responsibilities and requires them to certify they are complying with the law.