Meta contractor Covalen announced on Monday it was proposing to make 700 workers redundant at its Dublin operation.
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) has called for a meeting with the Taoiseach and Minister for Enterprise.
The company, a subsidiary of CPL, provides a range of services to Meta including content moderation and employs about 2,000 people at its Sandyford base.
It already cut more than 300 jobs this year having announced a round of redundancies last November.
READ MORE
The latest announcement comes days after Meta said it would lay off 10 per cent of its international workforce, a move likely to involve the loss of 8,000 positions. Staff in Ireland are expected to find out next month how many might be affected here.
In a statement on Monday, the CWU, which represents several hundred Covalen workers, said the staff there had thought they might be safe for a time after the earlier job losses but had been fearful since last week’s announcement by Meta.
“It’s like what they used to say about America sneezing and Ireland catching a cold ... people were immediately concerned that was going to impact on them,” said CWU deputy general secretary Ian McArdle.
[ Meta to cut 10% of global workforce to offset AI spendingOpens in new window ]
He said that after comments from Micheál Martin in recent days about the Government assessing the potential impact of AI on jobs across the economy, there was now a need for urgent action.
“We know the real reason behind these cuts. Meta is shedding thousands of jobs worldwide, cutting staff and tearing up vendor contracts simply to pay for its massive new artificial intelligence bills,” he said.
“We urgently need real Government intervention around AI-related job losses, not just proposals and assessments. Tech companies cannot be allowed to discard hundreds of workers overnight to fund AI without strict government oversight.
“Employers in tech can afford to protect staff. Our wages and conditions should not suffer for a crisis we neither caused nor will profit from.”
In addition to calling on the Government to accelerate the process of acting on AI-related job losses, the union has said Covalen should engage with it on the job losses and redundancy terms to be offered.
Those who left in recent months are reported to have received statutory redundancy which, given the high levels of turnover at the Sandyford operation, routinely meant very low payments.
The union is also asking that Meta scrap a rule it has requiring anyone losing a job at one of its contractors to wait six months before taking a job at another firm providing services to it. The CWU said some of those made redundant earlier this year were initially approached about jobs at other companies but ultimately could not be employed because of the Meta rule.
McArdle said engagement with the union was especially important given the young age profile of the workforce and the fact that so many of them are from overseas and not familiar with Irish law.
“What happened last time is that they asked for worker representatives and people volunteered. They got some training and we supported them as best we could but when they went in and made suggestions they were all rejected, one after the other,” he said. “It makes a mockery of the legislation about consultations being with a view to reaching an agreement. This is not about voluntarism, it’s about vetoism.”
In a statement, Covalen confirmed it has begun consultation with a number of employees in relation to potential redundancies in Dublin.
“The company is engaging directly and proactively to support the affected teams through this transition and is following the required consultation process in line with our obligations,” it said. All employees continue to have access to our employee wellbeing support through Covalen’s Employee Assistance Programme.”
