Estée Lauder settles with former staff over algorithm redundancies
Three former Estée Lauder staff have won a settlement against the cosmetics giant after the firm used an automated interview process to sack them.
The make-up artists lost their jobs after they were told to reapply for their posts via an automated video interview.
The software is made by the recruitment company HireVue, and the process dates back to 2020, following the furlough scheme.
Following the interview, they were informed they were being made redundant, partly as a result of the automated judgement by the computer.
The women told BBC Three that there was no explanation for why they had failed and lost their positions, and one of the women said “I literally thought we would be videoed and someone would mark it after. I found out that wasn’t the case. Nobody saw the video, it was all algorithms.”
According to reports from The Times, Estée Lauder said that interviewees were in fact briefed on the process, and that “using the HireVue process in tandem with human decision-making produces fairer outcomes and we stand by it”
In a statement shared with City PM, a Estée Lauder spokesperson said: “M·A·C UK & Ireland ’s vision is to be the most inclusive and diverse beauty brand in the world, and to be the employer of choice for diverse talent. We endeavour to treat our employees and candidates with dignity and respect at all times. The company takes significant steps to counter unconscious bias in all our employment-related decisions. In the situation described, facial recognition accounted for well under 1% (0.25%) of employees’ overall assessment.”
“The company has teams who overlay objective performance-related data and other qualitative feedback, which accounted for the majority of the employment assessment, to make decisions on employment. Thus, any suggestion that facial recognition technology played a decisive role in any employment-related decision at M·A·C UK & Ireland or the Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland is patently false.”