Thousands of Meta contractors in State could be hit by knock-on effect of cost cuts

Cost cuts signalled at social media platform Meta could hit thousands of contractors working with the company in the Republic through third-party firms.

Although the 6,000 contractors employed to work with Meta in Ireland were excluded from the current round of lay-offs announced by the company, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, future moves to slim down costs could see some cutbacks.

The company uses contractors through third parties, such as Accenture, to fulfil roles such as content moderation or recruitment, allowing them to quickly add or reduce staff as needed.

While Meta has yet to officially make any moves on this front, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company would be trimming costs beyond the 11,000 job cuts the Facebook owner announced on Wednesday.

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“We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1,” he said in a message to employees.

Wednesday’s job cuts applied only to the 3,000 employees directly hired by Facebook in the Republic, with some 350 jobs set to go at the company as it reduces its global workforce by 13 per cent.

If that reduction was to be reflected across the company’s ranks of contractors, it could lead to another 780 lost jobs.

Companies like Facebook employ contractors precisely because it is more flexible than taking people on as staff, especially in situations where numbers have to be cut back. However, the differing structure of the contracts in Meta makes such a straight-line approach unlikely.

Consultation process

Employees in Ireland who have been told that their roles were at risk are now entering a 30-day consultation process with the company.

Among those who took to social media to share news their jobs were under threat were people employed in recruitment and internal communications roles, although some in trust and safety were also affected.

Contractors were not included in the roles being cut. However, industry sources feel it is inevitable that Meta will rein in some of its spending on these third-party arrangements, as the company continues to streamline the organisation.

A spokesperson for Meta did not comment on the company’s future plans.

Sources consider it unlikely Meta will cut contracts significantly in an effort to reduce costs. However, future technologies could render some of the roles currently carried out under the contracts unnecessary. In his message to employees on Wednesday, Mr Zuckerberg pointed to artificial intelligence as a potential driver of efficiency for the company.

“As we build our AI infrastructure, we’re focused on becoming even more efficient with our capacity. Our infrastructure will continue to be an important advantage for Meta, and I believe we can achieve this while spending less,” he said.

Industry sources said this could mean that, in the future, AI could take over some of the work being done by outside contractors as the technology advances.