An artificial intelligence program used by one of the largest HR services companies in the U.S. allegedly put resumes of applicants who were Black, disabled, female or over 40 behind other job candidates. Workday’s hiring recommendation practices are the subject of a collective-action lawsuit that is seeking additional plaintiffs.
The lawsuit, initially filed in 2023, alleges Workday’s technology “disadvantaged” Derek Mobley — a Black, disabled IT professional over the age of 40 — in application pools due to his age. Mobley said he had applied for more than 100 jobs over several years only to be rejected, sometimes quickly. Mobley also says Workday’s technology discerned his race through his attendance at Morehouse College, a historically Black school, and rooted out his anxiety and depression via assessments and personality tests.
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In some cases, Mobley said, his application to a job that matched his experience was rejected in under an hour.
His lawsuit alleges Workday’s actions violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Four others later joined Mobley’s suit.
Mobley is seeking back pay, front pay, and other damages on behalf of the potentially millions who would qualify. The suit also asks for a ruling stating that Workday discriminated against the applicants and an order stopping Workday from using AI in the manner it is accused of.
Collective-action lawsuits are similar to class actions but concern employee-employer disputes via the Fair Labor Standards Act. Members of a collective-action suit must opt-in before they’re involved, where a class-action suit is the opposite.
The plaintiffs are now seeking people to join the suit, but only those who were rejected because of their age. The window to join at this stage of the case closes March 7.
Workday’s response
Workday denies the allegations. Although the case was filed in 2023, a judge has yet to rule on whether the HR company has any liability, only saying in 2025 that the case can proceed.
“The claims in the suit are false,” Connor Spielmaker, Workday’s corporate communications principal, told Straight Arrow News. “Our products, both AI-enabled and not, are built to help our customers manage an ever-increasing volume of applicants with a focus on human decision-making.”
He added that Workday’s AI recruiting tools are not trained to use or identify protected characteristics like race, age or disability.
B2B analytics firm 6Sense lists Workday with 25% of the total market share of HR firms of its kind. The expansive nature of the company’s footprint means that a collective-action suit could see millions of qualified people, according to court filings.
Motion to dismiss
A judge initially dismissed Mobley’s case but allowed his attorneys to refile. Workday filed to toss the suit in 2024, claiming that the software vendor didn’t have liability for hiring decisions made by its customer companies, but U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin in the Northern District of California didn’t buy that argument.
While she did rule that Workday’s programs weren’t intentionally discriminatory, the judge allowed Mobley’s team to make its case that the programs enabled the discrimination.
AI in hiring
The use of artificial intelligence in hiring practices isn’t limited to HR departments. SAN reported in May 2025 that services had emerged allowing job-seekers to use AI to apply for potentially hundreds of jobs in a short period of time.
Companies like Wobo.ai and others, for a fee, are able to take a job hunter’s data, preferred positions and other information, scan for applicable openings and apply without the user’s input.
The practice has turned screening candidates into a large-scale data project. A Workday Recruiting study said job applications were 31% higher in the first half of 2024 than in the comparable period of 2023. Meanwhile, job openings increased only 7%.
