By Michelle Devane, PA
The Tánaiste has said there is something “very odd and suspicious” about content moderators working for social media companies not being able to view non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) they have signed with their employers.
Leo Varadkar said it should be illegal for someone not to have access to a contract they have signed and that he would examine whether employment law could be amended.
Mr Varadkar told an Oireachtas committee: “I cannot understand the concept of asking someone to sign an agreement and then not allowing them to have a copy of it. If it’s not illegal I think it probably should be.
“I don’t understand that concept, why somebody would be asked to sign an agreement and they are somehow meant to memorise it.
“If you want someone to adhere to an agreement they sign, would it not make sense for them to have a copy of it? So they can remember what they agreed to.
“There’s something very odd and suspicious about people not being able to see an agreement they signed.”
Mr Varadkar added: “Perhaps there’s an opportunity to make an amendment to employment law in the next few months, if not this year, to make sure that employees are entitled to a copy of any agreement they’ve signed. I don’t see who could be against that quite frankly.”
Mr Varadkar was appearing before the Enterprise, Trade and Employment Committee on Wednesday to discuss the employment rights and health and safety of content moderators as well as the reactivation of the economy post-Covid.
Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly said non-disclosure agreements were being used as a “chilling effect” against workers and that it was a clear “exploitation”.
“It’s not that hard to understand,” she told the committee.
“It is workers having this used as a tool used against them to exploit them and it keeps the union away from them.”
“Workers are afraid, they are afraid to raise concerns,” she added.
But she said it was very important that content moderators raised their concerns for their mental health.
Ms O’Reilly also told the committee that content moderators were the first line of defence in the battle against toxic content online.
She described the conditions they had to endure while working as “archaic”, adding that they had “no place in a modern workforce”.
Fianna Fáil Senator Ollie Crowe said the culture of fear that some content moderators had described was “quite frankly sickening”.
Fine Gael TD for Cork East David Stanton said it was “harrowing” that moderators had to view “heinous crimes” during their job such as child abuse, rape, murder and torture.
Earlier this month an Oireachtas committee heard that Facebook moderators were advised to take up “karaoke and painting” to cope with their exposure to extreme content on the platform.
The social media giant outsources the job of its content moderators, whose role is to keep the platform safe by monitoring it for toxic content such as terrorist attacks, child abuse, self-harm and graphic violence.
Workers are forced to sign NDAs, which unions say could be illegal, meaning they are unable to speak about their experiences with friends and family.
Whistleblower Isabella Plunkett told the committee that workers need proper psychological support, new limits on their exposure to toxic content and an end to non-disclosure rules.
