WORKERS AT OUTSOURCING tech firm Covalen have voted in favour of strike action after the company announced that the jobs of 720 workers on Meta projects are at risk of redundancy.

Dublin-based Covalen is owned by CPL Resources, a multinational firm that provides AI annotation and moderation services to Meta, the tech giant behind Facebook and Instagram.

Recently, Meta announced plans to cut its global workforce by 10% – roughly 8,000 jobs – as it increases spending on AI automation projects and expands the range of tasks carried out by AI

More than 300 Covalen workers are members of the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU). At a meeting on Saturday, over 100 members voted to continue strike action on the 15th and 22nd of this month.

Workers previously staged strike action in January following layoffs at the company that affected roughly 300 employees.

The strikes are part of an ongoing dispute over redundancy terms, pay and conditions, and union recognition.

Staff are also planning to hold a protest outside the Dáil today to call on the government to do more to protect workers in the tech sector at a time of increasing layoffs.

In an open letter, a committee of 20 Covalen workers elected by CWU members said that under the terms proposed by Covalen in the latest round of layoffs, roughly 400 workers will have no entitlement to statutory redundancy, including 58 workers who will miss out on being eligible by just a few weeks of employment.

In Ireland, workers are only entitled to a statutory redundancy payment (which is equivalent to two weeks of pay for each year of work, capped at €600 per week) if they have been employed by the company laying them off for two years.

However, in the tech sector in Ireland, receiving an enhanced redundancy package is considered the norm, and other outsourcing firms including Accenture and Genpact have offered these to workers being laid off.

Covalen employees argue that both the company and its parent firm, CPL, have the resources to provide this support to workers facing redundancy.

CPL made a profit of €26.1 million in 2024, up from €23.6 million in 2023, but in late 2025 the company warned that it would be embarking on a restructuring process in light of changing market demands.

“Covalen has a choice. It can do the right thing, or it can throw hundreds of workers under the bus. We are committed to engaging constructively with the company to manage a fair process, one that protects workers in the middle of a severe cost-of-living crisis,” the committee of workers elected by CWU members said in a statement.

One Covalen employee said that workers being laid off are facing a “humanitarian and social crisis” at a time when rents and bills are “skyrocketing”.

“Many of our colleagues will be dismissed with little or no support. Many will not have sufficient PRSI contributions to qualify for social protections. Covalen is offering no meaningful support, while the Government appears content to look on as hundreds of workers are forced into unemployment,” the staff member added.

The CWU is demanding formal collective consultation meetings and for the company to meaningfully engage with elected employee representatives.

Union members claim Covalen is putting forward that the 30-day statutory consultation period began on 27 April, when staff were informed of the layoffs during a video call.

In their statement, they said that this cannot be the beginning of the consultation process, as employee representatives did not meet with management until a week later. 

The committee said that if this process is not adhered to, they will escalate the matter to the Workplace Relations Committee and, if necessary, the Labour Court.

Workers have also demanded to know “what compensation Covalen receives from Meta when contracts are reduced or lost”.

“Workers have the right to know what resources are available to mitigate job losses,” the committee statement read.

CWU organiser John Bohan said AI workers in outsourcing firms earn average salaries of around €32,000, and that without enhanced redundancy many will be placed in an extremely difficult financial position off the back of these lay-offs.

“Statutory redundancy only is absolutely an abnormal and anti-worker move in an Irish context, especially so in large, profitable businesses with major clients. In Ireland, our high costs of living and weak social security nets have made enhanced redundancy a key part of how these big companies manage their workforces – particularly with their reliance on migrant workers,” he told The Journal.

Covalen responds

Covalen told The Journal it has not yet received notice of industrial action. 

“We have always prioritised direct and open engagement with our employees,” the company said.

“While we fully respect the right of employees to take industrial action, we will continue to proactively consult and engage with our teams. Our commitment to direct and meaningful dialogue remains unchanged.”

Workers in the field of AI annotation train AI tools on how to respond to disturbing prompts or those related to illegal activities, and also moderate and remove harmful content from online platforms.

Meta has been clear that it plans to expand the use of AI to perform these activities, and the firm has plans to double its spend on AI projects into the tens of billions of dollars in 2026.

The firm has also publicly said that it wants to reduce its reliance on human workers through third-party companies and rely more heavily on its own automation systems.

Several firms offer these services and have large workforces in Ireland, including Covalen and Accenture.

That’s despite the fact that workers in this field have voiced their concerns that AI is not able to detect and respond adequately to harmful material, as those who post unlawful content – including child sexual abuse imagery – are often adept at disguising the format of their content to get past algorithmic screening processes.