Meta · Wired
In November, the company rolled out gears up for job cuts (reportedly to number around 400), culminating in a worker strike
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For affected Covalen workers, the search for new work will be hampered by a six-month “cooldown period,” during which they are unable to apply to a competing Meta vendor, claims the CWU.
Key facts
- Update 4/28/25 3:30pm ET: This story has been updated to include comment from Meta
- Tech companies are treating the workers whose labor and data helped build AI as disposable,” says Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union
- In November, the company announced plans for job cuts (reportedly to number around 400), culminating in a worker strike
- In all, more than 700 employees stand to potentially lose their jobs at Covalen, according to an email reviewed by WIRED
Summary
Hundreds of workers in Ireland tasked with refining Meta’s AI models have been told that their jobs are at risk as the company embarks on a sweeping new round of layoffs, according to documents obtained by WIRED. The affected workers are employed by the Dublin-based firm Covalen, which handles various content moderation and labeling services for Meta. The workers were informed of the layoffs over a brief video meeting on Monday afternoon and were not allowed to ask questions, according to Nick Bennett, one of the employees on the call. In all, more than 700 employees stand to potentially lose their jobs at Covalen, according to an email reviewed by WIRED. Their job is to check material generated by Meta’s AI models against the company’s rules barring dangerous and illegal content. Sometimes, the work involves cooking up elaborate prompts to try to bypass guardrails meant to prevent models from serving up child sexual abuse material, say, or descriptions of suicide.