Over 400 Irish Workers Face Job Loss as Meta-Linked Contractor Covalen Announces Mass Layoffs

Dublin: The fallout from Meta’s global restructuring has reached Ireland, with over 400 employees at Covalen—an Irish service provider to Meta—receiving redundancy notices. The news, delivered just weeks before Christmas, has left workers stunned and deeply concerned.

According to internal communications, more than 310 AI annotators, 59 quality analysts, and 51 management and support staff are now at risk of losing their jobs. Employees have been told they must select representatives by Monday for the upcoming collective redundancy consultation, which is legally required to run for at least 30 days.

Covalen, which operates in Ireland under CPL (owned by Japan’s Outsourcing Inc.), has informed staff that only statutory redundancy payments will be provided—regardless of years of service. Many of those affected have spent years working on long-term Meta projects, primarily involving content moderation and AI training.

Workers described the decision as completely unexpected. They pointed out that, just two weeks earlier, management held a project-wide meeting praising performance. The tone of communication since then, they said, has been “robotic.” With many employees struggling with high rent or mortgage payments, the timing has added to their distress.

The Communications Workers Union (CWU) strongly condemned the move. CWU organiser John Bohan labelled it “reprehensible” to inflict such fear and uncertainty on families during the holiday season. A portion of Covalen staff had already voted in favour of industrial action.

Covalen reportedly employs around 2,000 people across Ireland. The current layoffs follow comments by Meta’s Chief AI Officer, Alexander Wang, who recently suggested job cuts were part of Meta’s effort to strengthen its AI division. In July, Covalen employees had been involved in moderating and training Meta’s Llama AI model.

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