WHO DECIDED? · HIRING
Derek Mobley Applied at 12:55 a.m. The Rejection Came 55 Minutes Later.
(Workday argued that, as a software vendor, it couldn’t be sued for job discrimination. A federal judge disagreed.)
By Ethan Ward · Oct. 22, 2026 · Art: Interested Party
Derek Mobley has a finance degree from Morehouse College. Since at least 2017, he has applied for more than 100 jobs through hiring systems built on Workday’s software, and he was turned down for every one, his lawsuit says.
Some of the answers came in the middle of the night. At about 12:55 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, he applied to be a customer services specialist at Unum, an insurance company. At about 1:50 a.m., a rejection email arrived.
WHEN THE REJECTIONS CAME · FROM HIS LAWSUIT
Expedia · applied Sept. 23, 2018 · rejected Oct. 2, 2:19 a.m.
Fiserv · applied March 31, 2019 · rejected April 1, 9:40 a.m.
Unum · applied Aug. 31, 2019 · rejected the same day, 12:52 a.m.
Unum · applied Jan. 29, 2022, 12:55 a.m. · rejected 1:50 a.m.
ResMed · applied Jan. 9, 2024 · rejected Jan. 11, 3:52 a.m.
Mobley is Black, over 40, and has disabilities. In 2023, he sued Workday, saying its screening tools discriminate against applicants by race, age, and disability. The employers posted the jobs. Workday’s software, his lawsuit says, scored, sorted, and screened the people who applied. His lawyers point to how fast the rejections came, often overnight, as “strongly indicating automated screening rather than individualized review.”
Workday argued that, as a software vendor, it isn’t covered by federal discrimination law, and that its customers control how its tools are used. In July 2024, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin disagreed. The laws cover any agent of an employer, she wrote, and “employers cannot escape liability for discrimination by delegating their traditional functions, like hiring, to a third party.”
(Workday told the court that 1.1 billion applications were rejected using its software during the period the case covers.)
In May 2025, Lin let the age claim go forward on behalf of applicants 40 and older, and thousands of people joined before the March 7, 2026, deadline. Three more people are now named plaintiffs. One of them, Sheilah Johnson-Rocha, a Black woman over 40, says she sent about 2,000 applications through systems that use Workday. In June, Lin dismissed one plaintiff’s race claim and let the rest of the case continue.
The plaintiffs asked the court on Sept. 14 to certify the case as a class action. Workday is questioning 15 of the people who backed that request, in depositions running through Oct. 30. Workday hasn’t been found liable for anything. If the class is certified, the case could decide whether the companies that build hiring software answer for what it does, along with the employers who buy it.
What you can do
Save every application confirmation and rejection email, with the date and time it arrived. In Mobley’s case, the timestamps are part of the evidence.
If you think a hiring tool screened you out because of your race, age, sex, or disability, you can file a charge with the EEOC. The deadline is 180 days after the rejection, or 300 days in most states with their own anti-discrimination law.
In New York City, employers that use automated hiring tools have to tell applicants and publish a yearly bias audit. Ask for it, and report a missing notice to the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
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How we reported this
This story is based on court records in Mobley v. Workday, No. 3:23-cv-00770 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California: the original complaint, the orders of July 12, 2024, May 16, 2025, April 14, 2026, and June 22, 2026, the third amended complaint filed July 1, 2026, and the discovery order of Oct. 6, 2026. We also read the EEOC’s filing rules and New York City’s rules for automated hiring tools, all checked Oct. 18.
Rejected, suspended, or flagged for no reason? Tell me what happened.
The notice rarely says AI. It says “not selected” or “account suspended.” I read every tip myself.
