Workday Asks Judge to Shut Down Mass AI Hiring Bias Suit

Workday filed motions on November 10-11, 2026, opposing nationwide class certification in Mobley v. Workday Inc., the case that has become a landmark test of who answers for AI hiring tools. The company's argument is blunt: it doesn't pick who gets hired, its customers do. Without proof that Workday itself made hiring decisions for the businesses on its platform, the company says there's no common evidence holding the claims together.

The plaintiffs want four subclasses certified, covering African American applicants, women, applicants age 40 and older, and applicants with disabilities. Lead plaintiff Derek L. Mobley, a Black man over 40, says he was rejected from more than 100 job applications, and he and three co-plaintiffs claim repeated automated rejections tied to Workday's AI screening features. The case was first brought in February 2023.

Workday also argues that each customer configures its own setup, which undercuts the commonality needed to treat the claims as a group. If the judge buys that, the proposed classes could collapse before anyone argues the merits. The scale at stake is enormous: Workday reports processing more than 356 million applications in 2024 alone.

This isn't the first procedural skirmish. In May 2025 an age-discrimination collective was preliminarily certified, and by October 2026 more than 15,000 people had opted in — a sign the complaint stretches well beyond four named plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs' replies to Workday's opposition are due December 8, 2026. A hearing on class certification is set for March 9, 2027. The suit is widely described as one of the first major legal actions aimed squarely at an AI hiring vendor rather than at an employer using one, and the certification fight will decide whether vendor liability can go class-wide.

Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen.