Facebook is accused of forcing its employees to return to offices

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More than 200 Facebook employees from around the world have accused the company of forcing them to return to the office despite the risks of contracting the Covid-.19. The accusations came in an open letter that said the company unnecessarily risks the lives of its employees in order to preserve profits. And Facebook called for changes to allow more remote work and offer other benefits, such as a risk allowance. And Facebook said that the majority of these 15,000 global content reviewers are working from home and will continue to do so for the duration of the epidemic.

In August, Facebook said that employees can work from home until summer 2021.

But the social media giant relies on thousands of contractors, who formally work for other companies like Accenture and CPL, to discover materials on the site that violate their policies, such as spam, child abuse and misinformation. In the open letter, employees said the call to return to the office came after Facebook's efforts to rely more on artificial intelligence to spot problematic posts. After months of allowing content moderators to work from home in the face of intense pressure to keep Facebook free of hate and misinformation, you forced us to return to the office. Facebook needs us. It is time for you to acknowledge this and appreciate our work. Sacrificing our health and safety for profit is unethical. The reviewers have access to health care and that exceeded health guidelines on maintaining safe facilities for any work from within the office.

But staff said, Before the pandemic, content moderation was the worst job at Facebook. We have gone through violence and child abuse for hours on end. The tasks of moderators working on child abuse content have increased during the pandemic, without providing them with any additional support. Now, in addition to psychologically damaging work, sticking to a job means entering a hotspot.

The letter was addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, President of Facebook and Chief Operating Officer Sherrill Sandberg, as well as the heads of Accenture and CPL. The letter was prepared by the British law firm Foxglove, which works on technical policy issues. More than 170 of the signatories were unknown. And Facebook wasn't the only company whose employees have expressed concerns about operating amid the pandemic. Amazon has also come under fire over conditions in its warehouse