Workers Protest at Meta and Outsourcing Partner Over AI-Related Job Cuts

Dublin: Employees staged protests outside the Dublin offices of Meta and its outsourcing partner Covalen following the announcement of large-scale job cuts affecting workers involved in AI chatbot training and related digital services.

The demonstrations, organised by the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU), took place outside Meta’s European headquarters in Dublin and Covalen’s office on Haddington Road. Protesters accused the companies of using AI-driven restructuring as a justification for eliminating jobs that helped build and maintain those very systems.

Meta is proceeding with plans to reduce approximately 10 percent of its global workforce this year, affecting around 8,000 positions worldwide. Hundreds of roles are expected to be impacted in Ireland. Meanwhile, Covalen, which provides AI data annotation and content moderation services for Meta, previously confirmed that up to 720 jobs linked to Meta projects could be at risk.

Workers gathered, carrying banners and union flags, chanting slogans including, “We trained the bots, we worked hard, and now we’re being fired.” Protesters argued that employees who spent years training, reviewing and securing AI systems are now facing redundancy as those technologies become increasingly automated.

Roles Most Affected

The restructuring is expected to have its greatest impact on workers involved in:

• AI data annotation and data labelling
• Content moderation
• Quality assurance and review processes
• AI training and support functions

These employees have played a key role in preparing training datasets, reviewing online content, and identifying harmful, misleading, or inappropriate material. Companies argue that advances in AI technology now allow some of these functions to be carried out automatically.

Concerns Over Automation

While Meta has not specified whether jobs are being transferred to particular countries or organisations, labour representatives claim the company is increasingly replacing human-led processes with automated AI systems.

Union representatives describe the move not as traditional outsourcing, but as a significant shift from human labour to artificial intelligence-driven operations.

Impact on Migrant Workers

No official breakdown has been provided regarding the nationality of affected employees. However, unions note that a substantial proportion of contract workers employed on Meta-related projects in Dublin come from India and other Asian and African countries.

As a result, it is believed that a significant number of migrant workers may be affected, although official figures have not been released.

Union Calls for Support Measures

The Communications Workers’ Union criticised what it described as the growing human cost of AI-led restructuring across the technology sector.

Union representatives argued that workers who have provided critical services for years are being left without adequate job security, retraining opportunities, or transition support. They called on the Irish government to introduce targeted assistance programmes for workers affected by technological displacement.

The union also warned that while investment in artificial intelligence is often celebrated as a driver of economic growth, greater attention must be paid to the social and employment consequences of rapid automation.

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