Facebook content arbitrators in Ireland met with Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar for work from home rights

Facebook content arbitrators in Ireland met with Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar today to request telecommute rights. They say the organization constrained them back into the workplace, even as COVID-19 cases spiked.

“We should be working from home just like employees,” said Ibrahim Halawa, a former political prisoner and law student who works as a Facebook content moderator. “We should have the same mental health care they get, the same benefits—but we don’t. Facebook can’t exist without us, and it should stop treating us as second-class citizens.”

Since December 30th, Ireland has been in a level five lockdown, which means family visits are restricted and trivial retail organizations are shut. The nation presently has 192,645 affirmed COVID-19 cases.

In August, Facebook reported representatives would have the option to telecommute until July 2021. After two months, content arbitrators working for the subcontracting firm CPL in Dublin were advised to re-visitation of the workplace. The organization had ordered them as fundamental specialists, as indicated by The Guardian. High-hazard project workers were absolved, however those with weak relatives needed to agree. Mediators had recently been told the workplace would close for 72 hours if there was an affirmed COVID-19 case. Yet, The Guardian detailed that after three cases, the workplace stayed open.

During a public interview today, Halawa said Varadkar consented to send a letter to Facebook and Covalen, a CPL auxiliary, asking about the different treatment among project workers and representatives.

“They’ve made it abundantly clear that our health & safety and lives don’t matter to them,” said Paria Moshfeghi, another Facebook content moderator. “They’re forcing us into the office, putting us and our families at risk of COVID-19, even though our colleagues keep getting COVID. Facebook employees working on the similar content as us are safe and allowed to work from home. Why aren’t we?”

Both Halawa and Moshfeghi focused on that other Facebook arbitrators need to approach yet are terrified due to the severe NDAs laborers are compelled to sign.

Tech organizations have confronted mounting strain to direct substance during the Covid pandemic. In March, YouTube declared it would depend all the more intensely on AI to uphold its substance control strategy. In September, the organization said it was bringing back human mediators, taking note of AI hadn’t been as successful.