Meta Contractors Protest Layoffs at European HQ: ‘We’re Just Getting the Crumbs’
▼ Summary
– Contract workers employed by Covalen protested outside Meta’s Dublin office over planned layoffs affecting 700 employees, citing “reduced demand.”
– Workers with less than two years of employment will receive no severance; others get the minimum legal payout of two weeks’ pay per year of service.
– The workers are demanding double the current severance offer and payment for those under the two-year threshold.
– The Communications Workers’ Union urged Meta to use its leverage as Covalen’s client to push for improved severance and lift the six-month “cooldown period.”
– The protest began at Covalen’s office with chanting and drumming, then marched to Meta’s campus, where workers chanted about Meta profiting from their labor.
Outside Meta’s European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, a crowd of contract workers gathered on Friday afternoon, chanting, “We trained the bots. We did the grind. Now we’re being left behind.” Armed with flags, signs, whistles, and vuvuzelas, they were protesting a wave of planned layoffs that has put hundreds of jobs at risk.
These workers are employed by Covalen, a Dublin-based firm that provides content moderation and data labeling services critical to refining Meta’s AI products. In April, Covalen notified 700 employees that their positions were in jeopardy, blaming “reduced demand,” as first reported by WIRED.
Many of those affected will receive no severance because they have been employed for less than two years. For the rest, the compensation is the bare minimum required under Irish law: two weeks of pay for each year worked, according to the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU), which represents Covalen employees.
“We’re just getting the crumbs here,” says Aadel Obaid, a team manager at Covalen who is among those being let go. “Give us a little bit of the pie.”
To push for a better severance package, workers voted to strike outside Covalen’s corporate office before marching to Meta’s nearby campus. CWU organizer John Bohan argues that Meta, as Covalen’s anchor client, could use its influence to demand an improved offer. The workers are seeking double the current severance and at least some payment for those who fall short of the two-year employment mark.
Bohan also suggests Meta could waive a “cooldown period” that prevents laid-off Covalen employees from working on another Meta account for six months. Meta has previously described this restriction as an industry standard.
At 1 p.m. local time on Friday, the strikers gathered outside Covalen’s headquarters, a red-brick building on a quiet residential street in Dublin. The protest erupted with a wall of sound: drums, whistles, boos, and call-and-response chants led by a worker with a megaphone. Inside the lobby, a security guard watched, hands on his hips, looking bemused.
Two hours later, the crowd,now more than 150 strong,marched down the main road toward Meta’s campus, slowing traffic to a crawl. Dubliners enjoying an early summer day stopped to stare; some applauded. When the protesters reached Meta’s complex, two security guards stood with crossed arms, blocking the entrance. The group gathered at the gates and launched into another chant: “We scrub the feed. We take the pain. Meta profits from our strain.”
(Source: Wired)
