A former senior director at Meta has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit alleging the company engaged in age discrimination during its recent workforce reduction. The legal action, brought by 54-year-old Nicolas Franchet, claims that Meta's decision to cut 5% of its staff resulted in older workers being laid off at much higher rates than younger employees.
According to the lawsuit filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, data provided to terminated employees reveals a stark disparity. Workers aged 40 and older were reportedly 1.5 times more likely to be laid off, while those 50 and up were 2.5 times more likely to lose their jobs compared to employees under 40. Franchet, who had worked at the company for 13 years and received a special equity award from CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2023, was terminated in February 2025 despite a history of positive performance reviews.
The suit challenges Meta's rationale that the layoffs were strictly performance-based. It alleges that a new employee-rating system introduced in January 2025 allowed managers to arbitrarily flag workers as "lowest performers" to facilitate terminations. Franchet is seeking damages, including compensation for approximately $12 million in unvested stock grants he lost upon termination.
This case adds to the long-running narrative regarding age discrimination in Silicon Valley. The legal filing references previous settlements by other tech giants, including HP and Google, over similar allegations of purging older workforces. Meta has declined to comment on the pending litigation or the specific termination statistics cited in the complaint.
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