More companies using Facebook to exclude older job seekers

Bloomberg

A proposed class action lawsuit alleging Facebook’s ad placement tools facilitate discrimination against older job-seekers 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 discrimination—filed in San Francisco court. The union added claims under California’s fair employment and unfair competition statutes to the lawsuit, 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 Inc., Cox Media Group, Cox Communications Inc. and T-Mobile, as well as what the union estimates to be hundreds of employers and employment agencies who used Facebook’s tools to filter out older job hunters when seeking to fill positions.
The amended filing adds Ikea, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and the University of Maryland Medical System to its list of companies who allegedly used Facebook’s tools to filter by age. Those three entities, as well as Facebook, aren’t named defendants in the lawsuit. Facebook and the companies added to the amended complaint didn’t immediately responded to requests for comment made before regular business hours.
The union alleged in its amended complaint that Facebook also uses age-filtering in ads intended to find its own employees.
“It’s important that the EEOC engages in a rigorous and comprehensive investigation of Facebook, since Facebook is the largest employment agency in the history of the world,” Peter Romer-Friedman, a lawyer for the union, said in an interview.
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. Comparing age-targeted employment ads to ads placed in magazines or on TV shows favored by people of certain ages, Goldman wrote that, “Used responsibly, age-based targeting for employment purposes is an accepted industry practice and for good reason: it helps employers recruit and people of all ages find work.”